[DnD] D&D Discussion & Enlistment (Save Ends)

This is Gamingforce D&D, a play-by-post campaign running continuously since June 2008 with no downtimes longer than a week.

The party is currently at Level 7. The current adventure is Tomb of Horrors, a brutal exercise in beating the players down until their spirits are broken.

As characters die or retire, new characters will be needed to fill the party. Characters must leave the active party after two consecutive adventures, and are not eligible to participate in the next two after that. Otherwise you may be selected at random to join the party at any time, so be ready!

As always, keep all out-of-character chatter or questions in this thread.

For the edification of active players, the current house rules are as follows:

1. If it's your turn in combat or the game otherwise requires your input to proceed, post within 48 hours. Failure to do so will result in your turn being forfeited while the DM frog-marches your character toward doom. Three such failures will result in your PC being summarily executed in a pointedly comical fashion.
   
2. If you expect to be away for a few days, let us know so that someone can cover for you. If you expect to be away for a long time (a month or more), your PC will be retired peacefully.
   
3. For the sake of game speed, implied consent is used in the event of powers which move your allies. If you think they should move, they move; there is no need to wait for their approval.
   
4. Skill Challenges use the unofficial Obsidian system, making them both faster and more flexible. Don't expect to always use your best skills.
   
5. Instead of spending ritual components, you may pay for a ritual by expending a healing surge. This rule does not apply to Creation rituals.
   
6. In addition, casting time of all rituals is reduced to one full combat turn.
   
7. You may make a Bluff check vs. shopkeepers in order to seek more favorable prices when buying and selling.
   
8. You may use as many Daily Item Powers in a day as you'd like.
   
9. You may use as many Action Points during an encounter as you'd like.
   
10. You may move diagonally through corners.
    
11. Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate may be used as minor actions rather than standard.
    
12. If you fall off a cliff, you fall. No saving throws to catch yourself. This rule also applies to enemies.
    
13. If you die, you die. Nobody gets raised from the dead.
    
14. Mundane ammunition for ranged weapons is effectively infinite, don't bother buying any.
    
15. Small characters may wield two-handed weapons, and may wield versatile weapons with one hand.
    
16. Dark Sun races (Thri-Kreen, Mul) are not currently in the Builder, but you may use them.
    
17. In addition to the official races, you may play a Modron, a Corgi or a Skaven.

If you need any help with rules questions, character building, or anything else related to the game, just ask! I am here to make your orc dork experience as painless as possible.

The following PCs are currently active:

Gra-Fa-Zut, Genasi Swordmage. Portrayed by wvlfpvp.

Samwise Shadowspade, Halfling Rogue. Portrayed by Denicalis.

Beefi Kertanz, Minotaur Barbarian. Portrayed by Shin.

Uxig "Slim" Uxigson, Kobold Barbarian/Runepriest/Warlord. Portrayed by CetteHamsterLa.

Garold Fangus, Longtooth Shifter Seeker. Portrayed by Animechanic.

The party currently has the following Drama Cards at their disposal: Think Fast

, Hide In Plain Sight

, On My Terms

, Now You Fucked Up

, Mow Down

.


The following PCs are currently pursuing less-interesting adventures offscreen:

Puyet, Half-Orc Warlord. Portrayed by Zephyrin.

Glenn McCormick, Eladrin Rogue. Portrayed by Hawkeye.

The following PCs have died or retired:

Fescue Totengeld, Human Rogue. Portrayed by Zephyrin.

Brigid Conmara, Halfling Cleric of Melora. Portrayed by a lurker.

Argumentus of Hamfist, Human Fighter. Portrayed by Bradylama.

Gabriel Sledgehammer, Dwarven Paladin of Kord. Portrayed by Denicalis.

Scary Bob, Elven Wizard. Portrayed by Shin, with 33 kills.

Motsognir the Subgenius, Dwarven Warlord. Portrayed by knkwzrd.

Delic Swagger, Human Fighter. Portrayed by LeHah.

Gordok of Zark, Halfling Warlock/Druid/Bard. Portrayed by AcerBandit.

Glockenspiel McSteelchest, Warforged Bard. Portrayed by Colonel Skills.

Gheth McGarnigal, Dragonborn Cleric of Avandra. Portrayed by Skexis.

Garrmondo Alkatraz, Human Fighter. Portrayed by Garr.

Cal Amah, Changeling Ranger. Portrayed by Zergrinch.

The following players are currently in the Random Good Times Selection Party Pool!

Maris

Shin

knkwzrd

CetteHamsterLa

Colonel Skills

AcerBandit

Skexis

Rychord

Dopefish

a lurker

Animechanic

The following players are on probation pending a renewed confirmation of interest.

orion_mk3

packrat

Soluzar

Araes

Helloween

The following players are currently in the kiddie pool and are awaiting or experiencing basic training.

Tritoch

Strange|Gnome

Turbo

Philia

Dark Nation

coeccias

Stop Sign

Shorty

RESOURCES

Zergrinch has helpfully compiled a chart of the panoply of status icons you'll see during battle.

Character Building

With 36 races and 25 classes available, you can cobble together nearly any ridiculous idea. For the most part all you need to make a character is the official Character Builder. The free version lets you build characters up to level 3. If you need access to the full version, just ask — someone can point you to a solution.

Can't think of a name for your PC? Use this Name Generator for thousands of embarrassing monikers.

Since the Character Builder is Windows-only, I also provide these handbooks for your perusal. These files are hidden from guests.

This content has been hidden by the poster

Sorry, you are not authorized to view this hidden content. The conditions are: 5 posts

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by ;749705

I'm not very sure what "Cursed" and "Diseased" do.

Acer curses people all the time, it probably belongs under "Marks".

Speaking of Acer, I get to invoke Rule 1 already! Strike 2.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

We don't raise the dead in this campaign, boss.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The mob I was going to have them fight if they failed the skill challenge had a damaging aura, but they just barely squeezed out of that. The problem with diseases is that only a few enemy categories really carry them: wild animals, lycanthropes and undead mostly. I think I can work one into the next fight maybe, we'll see.

If you do decide to tally up knockdowns, also take a note of who did the revivals in each case (both of these are things I should have been tracking really).

Originally Posted by Zerg

]Also if I move back one or two steps, presumably going up the stairs and gaining a line of effect that's not blocked by grates, can I shoot the towering Hulk without the partial cover penalty, presumably working both ways?

Why certainly. Maybe you could go all the way outside, and try to fire arrows in an arc over the theater walls.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Zerg

Oh, so it's an open-air amphitheater?

This is the only kind of amphitheater there is.

"Who did the most damage" is kind of pointless to track, since, by design, it's always going to be the strikers, followed by defenders, leaders, then controllers. It might be interesting to track lifetime damage and healing for everyone, but that's a little bit too much to expect for fffff I'll get to it at some point.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Gordok's a hybrid striker/controller who splashed into leader for no immediately obvious reason. He probably does more damage than a pure druid would do, but even then Warlocks probably have the lowest raw damage output of any Striker.

His total damage dealt over a lifetime might be higher than Cal's, but that'd be purely due to longevity. On a pure average-damage-per-round basis, I'd take that bet of yours any day.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Skexis

You know, it's rather odd that I haven't thought of it before, but does healing draw AoO because it's ranged?

Both Healing Word and Majestic Word are close bursts despite only targeting one thing at a time, probably for this exact reason.

FELIPE NO

I don't think anybody updated the campaign history since Hargast, so it's lain dormant for quite a while longer than that.

Plus last I heard GFWiki was bugging out and essentially not working right at all.

Additional Spam:
As an example of what a well-oiled machine this game is, there's a PBP game on SA also running Thunderspire Labyrith... since August 2008.

How ya doing, buddy?

I remember somebody asking if they were required to keep their early selection, and I said no, but that indicates to me that there's a perception there that writing it down somehow makes it permanent. So I decided not to write it down anymore.

Are you sure you don't want to be a psychic plant

Jam it back in, in the dark.

That's not necessarily true, Deni. Attacks that act as interrupts aren't common, but they do exist.

Whether an attack hurts just you or hurts everyone in the square depends entirely on what kind of attack it is. If the spell targets you, the dude whose square you're sharing is probably safe. If the spell has an area effect that happens to include you both, obviously you're both getting electrocuted.

And yes, it's kind of what's called turn-based simultaneous: a round occurs over six seconds, and during those six seconds everyone acts at roughly the same time. Initiative just effects whether you're moving a fraction of a second faster than the next guy.

If we take the current battle as an example: while Gordok is feeling up that pillar, the Manglers are already stabbing the horse, and Cal is already pulling back his bowstring to punish them for it. The round begins when the fastest combatant begins to act, and ends when the slowest combatant finishes acting — but, thematically, they're only taking "turns" for the sake of playability.

oh god nerding out so much but it's really all quite cinematic

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh. Well, despite the implications Swiftcurrent doesn't actually turn you into water, so no.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by ;749831

The module is surely bigger than just the duergar castle, as you've hinted there was a dragon there. So, I'd say we're at par!

Sure, there are areas G-Unit didn't explore, but the game on SA just this week reached roughly the same point you guys did.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Yeah, a Double Shift would allow you to shift into difficult terrain.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Wow, now that you point it out the Flask has a lot of problems. Let's just assume that it's meant to duplicate the Dragonborn Dragon Breath power, so you'd take one minor to drink and store and then another minor to unleash the blast.

This would be vs. Reflex, which this broken-ass item also fails to specify.

'course, Skex stole this from you and gave it to Garr, so it's possibly a moot point. Clever girl.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Jesus, Zerg. Scare the boy away, why don't you. Do you know where all that shit can ALSO be found? In The Character Builder. The age of bringing your bookshelf to the game table is over, thank God.

(Zerg's "grasp of the rules" is pretty questionable, since he needs me to clarify them about thrice daily)

FELIPE NO

Yeah, I'll still build characters for people who don't want to install shit / do research, but there's always that question of leveling up. Still I guess if you can trust me for one thing you can trust me for the other.

What kind of specifics can I hit you up with, anyways? Because yeah, looks like a replacement might be in the making pretty soonlike with 1 PC only interested in saving his own ass and another one in a perpetual coma. Of course, I've said this before.

Additional Spam:
Damn, Skills, notwithstanding that I asked you to stop bailing him out that's a little premature

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by ;749997

Cal's just as effective 15 squares away as he is in 3 squares

Prime Shot says otherwise.

("Bringing up the rear" is fine, but these maps are finitely large and sometimes "bringing up the rear" would just mean shoving everyone else forward to make room for this theoretical "rear")

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yes, but then again, Rule 3.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

What a piece of work is a horse! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by ;750092

Depending on the size of his package, Cal might just harvest it.

You can try. I don't think you have the STR to handle this much man, though.



I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

1 Die Roll wut

Sonic is pretty much only for homos, always has been.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Okay two things:

Zerg, how the fuck did you successfully post in the game yesterday with all that shit going on?

Zerg, why the fuck did you post in the game yesterday when it's Skills' turn?

Also I'm just going to repost the prank I made since I did put some work into it only to have the board steal it and bury it in some shitty anime thread so

Quote:

Anyways I had an idea which will help speed things up a lot. 4th Edition has been a lot of fun, but at times it's just very clunky and really altogether overcomplicated — and it just gets more complicated at every level! Not to mention that 4E characters have so damned many HP, they're nearly impossible to kill!

But I know the solution.

Gentlemen, as of today we switch to Rules Cyclopedia Dungeons & Dragons, circa 1991. Now, while many of your particular races and classes are no longer valid, I think you'll adjust well to the conversion if you really give it a chance.

I've taken the liberty of converting your characters to this system as best I could, although, necessarily, some details were lost. Let me know if you have any questions about how your new abilities work!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

what the fuck is a ranger get out of here with that bullshit, there's no rangers in D&D

just take a rank in Tracking if you survive to level 2

Whatta bunch of newbs, next thing you know somebody'll want to be a Paladin before reaching 9th level and swearing an oath of fealty

Play for serious

FELIPE NO

Oh god never using a map with three dimensions again ever



Accessible on ground floor

Accessible on balconies

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Nah frankly I don't give a damn about the pillars, I hadn't even factored them in as a consideration until Acer tried to climb them. Then Zerg gets involved and I have to spend time thinking about the goddamn architectural design of this half-assed prop I yanked off of RPGMapShare and tokens always insist on being the top layer and—

"Flooded theatre" seemed like a fun setpiece at the time

Additional Spam:
Not bitchin' at you guys for trying to use the terrain I gave you, just annoyed with myself

Jam it back in, in the dark.