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

That's a really long and silly way of saying "An average skill check should be an 8+, adjust as you think relevant to what your players are trying to do". Have they always led DMs around by the hand like this? It seems really patronising to suggest that people need a special chart to help them gauge the difficulty of skill challenges but then we do have Zerg here who is a living example of someone who plays the game strictly by the letter of the rules so I guess I answered my own question.

FELIPE NO

Yeah I had no interest in the article myself since my suggested skill check difficulty is "whatever would be funny" but sadly there are a lot of players who insist that their character can't juggle since there aren't any rules for juggling. The sheer number of useless, useless charts is at an historical low but some things never change...

How ya doing, buddy?

It's been two days. Push wvlf overboard already.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Still got 6 hours left before the 48-hour mark though, boss.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I wouldn't push him overboard, I would just decide for him what he's doing aboard ship.

Now, if Gra-fa-zut suddenly decided to scrape all the barnacles off the keel in the middle of the night that's different.

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

Originally Posted by Pangalin

Also I have a plan to ease some of the excessively long wait times in my backup queue, but I can't put it into practice until the current adventure finishes.

Almost forgot, had Zeph not talked about delays. Care to share the details of your plan?

How ya doing, buddy?

...shit. Between making a nice-looking job board, writing the transitional fiction, and the gradual work on the new wiki the new system fell by the sidelines.

Spoiler:

Basically I intended to construct a guild of sorts to allow people to slot in and out of the active party while still being part of "G-Unit". Thus, anybody who wanted to make a character could put it in the G-Unit "roster" and then at the beginning of a new mission it could be debated which 5 employees would be best for this particular job (with the caveat that nobody takes more than say 5 jobs in a row). Zombies? Let's take the cleric. Problem in the woods? Druid might be a good idea.

You could even have multiple characters at a time per player. Sick of playing your wizard? Well, then, don't play him. He just stays at base for a while and you can play your bard instead, whatever. I mean we could still do over-the-top death scenes if the situation calls for it but no longer would we have to up and murder someone because their player went on vacation for a month. People could take a little break from the game without expecting to wait 18 months or more for another turn.

Actually the embassy in Veltalar might be a fun way to springboard into this, we'll see.

Most amazing jew boots

That's... actually a really sweet idea.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Seconded, I like that.

But par it down to 2 adventures in a row max (or even just one) per player to keep things fresh and player's senses of humour from being stretched too thin. 5 is still a long wait.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

Still got 6 hours left before the 48-hour mark though, boss.

I'm counting since the DM's last post, not since the post of the most recent player. That's stretching it too far if somebody, say, posts barely within the two day, and then another person we're waiting on has ANOTHER two days to make us drawl about.

And Freeport seems to be the ideal homebase for such a guild, although I haven't really kept up with your geography too much.

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

Yeah, when it's something where it doesn't matter what order you post in "since the DM's last post" makes more sense as a yardstick.

Geography is basically the standard Forgotten Realms with a bunch of extra little dots scattered all over where I shoehorn in extra cities and towns and such. It's not very instructive, since you have to zoom out so far to get a sense of place, but:



Jam it back in, in the dark.

That's an awesome idea Pang. It'll give a lot more people a chance to play, give people a chance to play with different people and to try out different sorts of character. Shoe-horn it in asap!

Rather than an existing guild though you shoul make it like a Suikoden castle. Have the G-Unit recruited by a small boy who never says much and when they get there they find 102 other idiots bumbling about the place. If nothing else it gives you the opportunity for an underlying master-plot that doesn't rely on player characters to keep driving it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Capital idea, my good man.

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

This feels really awkward but I'm in a position where I basically have to thank Zerg for his endless neuroses. I showed you the progress I'd made on the new sheets a few days ago. Rather than just sitting back and offering suggestions like I asked, Zerg instead made his own account on the new wiki and built my rudimentary sheet into a goddamn technicolor spectacle.

Cal Amah (Sheet)

He's built new templates, rearranged everything, cleaned things up... not only does his sheet look amazing, but the template work he's done makes it much, much easier for me to do the work of converting everyone else over. I'm just blown away, and I don't think he's done yet.

Thanks, Zerg. Thanks for being a crazy person.

Additional Spam:
Not that this will prevent me burying you under a wave of murderous fish

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

Damn Zerg, I must admit. I am impressed.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Incredibly nice. Only complaint is that I'm overwhelmed with information when I look at it, because everything is so compact and easy to find.

I noticed there's not really a way to track multiple expenditures for powers that have multiple uses though. That's all I can really find. Good work, zerg.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I've been exploring ways to port over the sheets for the Arena game in wiki format (the Excel page doesn't look very good IMO), so I guess that's the motivation right there.* If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing right?

The technicolor is more of a placeholder, really. Definitely there should be some standardized color scheme. I've just finished tweaking the item template to my satisfaction, though I'm too lazy to type in Cal's items.

Although I wanted to have a user-friendly layout, I concede it's biased towards the DM's benefit. Those sections are really only in place to make updating easier (no crazy scrolling or destroying the whole page when updating), and I wish there's a way to auto-hide the section list by default. Most frequently updated stuff all in one place (Inventory; Vital Statistics) as opposed to stuff which gets updated every level or so (Powers, Checks).

Good point with the Multi-use powers. Here's how I was thinking it might work. Under resource tracker, indicate the number of times it can be used. Decrement every time it's used, until the power is spent. So, for healing word:

Full: Healing Word (2/2)
1 used: Healing Word (1/2)
Expended: Healing Word (2/2)

I've suggested changing font colors (to black) to indicate power use, but it's also not the most intuitive. Since cell background is not an option, maybe a strikethrough? Blink? Maybe you folks can improve on it (it's a wiki after all).

* And maybe! Just maybe it's a Xanatos Gambit to get Pang to share some of the maps he's made. Because if there's one thing I've learned from running the "Arena" game, it's that I really suck at battle mapmaking

FELIPE NO

Dang. Glenn hasn't had a decent initiative roll once since he joined the group.

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

If you wanted maps all you had to do was ask. Most of my stuff I just find preconstructed by people far more competent than I, and then I dump a bunch of props on top. UnderLamid was more or less from scratch, but it wasn't exactly compelling artwork.

(Sea battles are basically easy mode, of course. Get boat model, put boat model on water backdrop. Enjoy beverage.)

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

Glenn hasn't had a decent initiative roll once since he joined the group.

On the upside, the whole "caught napping" motif of the battle means that the primary downside of losing initiative (getting wounded before you can act) doesn't really apply here.

On that note, everyone that isn't Cal will be entering the fight by coming from belowdecks. Therefore when your turns come around, indicate which square you're "spawning" in: I1, I3, I4, I5, R2, R3, R4, R5 or R6 (the warder in R3 will have moved by then, natch). Getting to the battle doesn't count against your movement for the turn.

When the sailors enter combat they'll be under Zephyrin's control.



In addition to that we have another volunteer-from-the-audience situation.*



*Yeah probably Skills again but you never know. Bitches whine about the wait times, but they aren't interested unless they can be big-ass heroes. Pft.

Additional Spam:


Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Pangalin

*Yeah probably Skills again but you never know. Bitches whine about the wait times, but they aren't interested unless they can be big-ass heroes. Pft.

You bet your ass. BRING IT ON.

oh yeah baby do you like it

Most amazing jew boots

I assume the hard to starboard can't be performed unless the Cpt. is at the wheel?

Also, guh. Soldiers' initiative being so far away from mine doesn't help. Good thing I can at least place them.

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

The captain or someone else who would know what the fuck "starboard" and "port" are. The sailors, and... Gra-fa-zut's got the Mariner background, that'll do.

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

Originally Posted by Pangalin

The captain or someone else who would know what the fuck "starboard" and "port" are.

[09/10/2010 - 02:18:32] ZephyrinKA: starboard is the rear of the ship, right?
[09/10/2010 - 02:18:55] Colonel Skills: you think someone in the armed forces would know that
[09/10/2010 - 02:19:08] ZephyrinKA: Army, shithead. I don't play in the water
[09/10/2010 - 02:19:29] Colonel Skills: bow/stern is front/back
[09/10/2010 - 02:19:37] Colonel Skills: port/starboard is left/right when looking at bow
[09/10/2010 - 02:19:47] Colonel Skills: derp
[09/10/2010 - 02:19:51] ZephyrinKA: derp
[09/10/2010 - 02:20:58] Colonel Skills: easy way to remember
[09/10/2010 - 02:21:03] Colonel Skills: port and left both have four letters
[09/10/2010 - 02:21:17] Colonel Skills: this is assuming people in the army know how to spell, of course
[09/10/2010 - 02:21:29] ZephyrinKA: so port is left as in, say, driver's side of a vehicle?
[09/10/2010 - 02:21:50] Colonel Skills: wait did you really need clarification on the concept of left

I was speaking idiomatically.

I guess port = driver's side of a vehicle in the U.S. should be a good enough analogy, since simply saying "left" or "right" is rather subjective depending on your viewpoint.

I'm not sure what you're going about, Skills. I agree with you. Just saying the port/starboard thing can be explained with that analogy.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, he cut out that part of the conversation.

FELIPE NO