We will use this thread for out of character discussion

  Hello everyone ! Happy to be part of the adventure as a half-elf monk, looking forward to meeting the rest of the group.

Welcome to the game Solwyn. Feel free to jump into the game thread I just posted up. Introduce your character and have some interaction with the crew of the ship you guys are on and your fellow adventurers.  I'm going to throw a fight in there after you guys finish introducing your characters

Hi there, thanks for letting me join! I'll be your all-purpose combat dwarf.

Ahh good, always nice to have an all purpose combat dwarf around.  I went for the magical support wacky character this time, but don't expect that to detract at all from the quality of the support.

Greetings all. I’m you arrow slinging elf.

Hello hello! I'll be your friendly neighborhood Yuan-ti Pureblood Cleric. Don't mind the forked tongue. I'll try to keep you lot alive but won't make any guarantees.

Hello. Braaka is a cleric also, though clearly an upfront warrior. Interesting.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:57, Thu 04 Feb 2021.

Welcome everybody!

I have updated your character sheets so they should be editable for you guys.  I'm going to start up a combat now and we can just get a feel for the combat system and dice roller on here as it has been a while since I have used them.

So for the bad guys I am going to give you the AC and HP but the HP will be unknown until you actually kill them.  I will write it like this AC: 15 HP: ? with the exclamation mark showing the range of HP with ? being single digit ?? being double digit and so on.

Any allied NPCs you have will be run using the Minion rules from 4E, so they take one hit and they go down, unless they are an important NPC in which case they will get the same treatment as a bad guy and I will give them full AC and HP.

I'm still working on the equipment list so for now we will just go by the Players Handbook until I can get a proper list sorted.  Sorry for the delay but I'm just winging it at the moment!  I should have everything sorted by the beginning of next week when I get some days off.

   I rolled 18 for Initiative. I think you should consider rolling Initiative for the PCs every time, it saves a lot of time on RPoL.

I wouldn't have any issue with that either. Combat in play-by-post can drag on, so feel free to make obvious rolls on my behalf if it helps you, DM.

Or just base initiative off the situation, and do it by group.  So you can do one post per round and the PCs can post in any order, so we don't end up waiting for ever step.

Yessss! Off to a great start thus far! Lol!

My next character may have higher dex. We'll see. =)


Also, I'm good with either group initiative or you rolling for us, whatever works best.

I think Hyacinths suggestion is the way to go "So you can do one post per round and the PCs can post in any order, so we don't end up waiting for ever step."

We will do that for the next combat and see how it goes!

Wait, did I miss something? We're first level characters right? If not I need to update my sheet which won't take long, just let me know.

   (cough) I think I messed up, I thought we were supposed to be level 5. I'll edit my character sheet and combat post later today.

Oh dang I was kinda hoping I could bump up my character lol. Ah well, to battle!

Mid level games do tend to be more interesting, and allow characters to differ more, but sometimes there is value to playing through a quick version of the process of getting characters there.

Absolutely agree with you :D

But boy this first round is going well for me lol

We seem to be quite the gang of precise-yet-light-hitters...

In reply to Taklinn Coalburner (msg # 20):

At least you hit. Even at +7 to hit I didn’t manage. Hopefully next attack.

   Done.

   I haven't played 5th edition enough to be bored with low level play yet, anyway :)

I wouldn't say I am quite bored with low level play.  But I do tend to only do it when I have the opportunity to use it on an unusual character concept, and have some reason to hope it won't stay low level forever.

I personally enjoy low level. More so if it actually goes somewhere. Something about the way characters develop organically when played I guess. I don’t get the same feel from starting at mid to high levels.

It's definitely a 1st level game to start with but you guys will be moving up levels pretty fast, you guys will definitely be 2nd level after this battle and probably well on your way to 3rd, so it shouldn't be particularly onerous.  One of the things I had to adjust to was how slow everything is in Play by Post so I needed to adjust my expectations for experience and leveling up and so on.

Once we get into the exploration side of things I will have a bunch of choices for you guys but if there are things that you want to do in character we can pursue that as well.

The dice roller is different than I'm used to as well.  I tend to use the AVRAE dice roller for Discord so this one is taking a little while to get used to.  How do I generate a lot of rolls at once and get each roll?  Say for instance I want to do 15 d20+4 attack rolls and have each separate result displayed?

Hello all and well met.

I will be your friendly neighborhood changling rogue.  He is as much a persuader as he is a deceiver and can be intimidating from time to time.  He is stealthy and nimble of foot.  Able to infiltrate behind enemy lines by impersonating soldiers and officers alike.

I know very little about the adventure, not unlike the rest of you...I'm hoping there will be need for his particular talents.

Note: the avatar I'm using is Varx natural form, which he isn't usually in.  I will try to remember to provide a current 'appears like' image in his 'description' area for players to refer to if desired/needed.

In reply to Mr DM (msg # 26):

On the right hand side of the dice roller is a section where you can do multi die rolls and have them turn up separate.

IE: 1d20+4,1d10+2,1d4+3 ect

I'd stick to maybe 5 at max otherwise it can have a hard time showing.

You can also do the standard roll with the drop down if you need to do like 5d20 and then select record each die in the general section. I normally only use that if its straight rolls though. The + or - only applies to the total in that method. Again I would stick to around 5 rolls so it displays correctly.

Or, given that you are the DM and we trust you to botch things only in our favor, you could use your own personal physical dice and just give us the result :)

For bulk rolls (like 15 NPC attacks) I find that it is often easier to do the math separately.

Use the 15d20 pull down option and check the 'display each roll' but don't put the +4 in.  Then just scan the list for the 14s you need to accumulate hits when attacking someone with an 18 AC for instance.

Hi all, Rex Dauntless, your sword and whip fighter, is here to save the day! I'm the confident, dashing hero, making up for a lack of book smarts with a surplus of courage!

Time to find a portrait and then check into the combat thread.

Ah, this will do.

There is a max of 20 dice I believe on the diceroller for using the side.

You could also just roll 15d20+whatever in the main normal dice roll choice and choose "Record Each Die" checkbox. It has a drop function for advantage/disadvantage so you could drop the lowest or drop the highest (which I found by accident also still works if you entering dice to roll on the side in the manual area).

I forgot how much armor Rex wears... so this portrait is a better choice. I liked the attitude of the first one, though.

Anyway, let's have a fun game, and I'll second the option of letting the DM roll off-site if that's easier.

I mean...it's not like we can really see the armor in the picture anyway, and you could always put an picture in the description to show the armor if you wanted to or something. I say go with the picture you like better.

In reply to Braaka Nightseer (msg # 35):

True enough, but I don't see him wearing that much over the chain mail. This one will do.

Also, am I the only human in this group? I rarely play humans myself, but it still feels a tiny bit strange that the group is so diverse. I guess that's why everyone's setting off for a new world, though. Oh, and this human understands Tumenril's Elven, which probably irritates him a bit, eh?

In reply to Rex Dauntless (msg # 36):

I’m sure he hasn’t paid you any notice. And if you speak it to him he just regards you with disdain as if you have befouled him.  He is very pro Elf and it will take a bit to get him to soften up.

   Welcome Varx Anaya and Rex.

Yeah, noticed that too at the beginning :)

Welcome new players!

Varx can shift into a human form any time you're feeling lonely Rex :)

Late Note: hmmm...I don't think that reads as innocently as I'd intended.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:50, Mon 08 Feb 2021.

Ha!

Oh, and Tumenril, I'm sure Rex hasn't picked up on the disdain. Hopefully that turns into more of an endearing ignorance than a smug self-centered-ness...

In reply to Rex Dauntless (msg # 41):

Will be interesting to see how it plays out.


Varx do we know that your shape shifter? Or do we all just think your an Elf? Depending it will change how Tumenril treats you.

Did everyone come in knowing each other or ate you all individuals on the same boat heading to the same place?

I'm good with working out shared backstories

I understood it as getting to know each other or at least be aware of each other on the boat with disparate backstories. However I'm down for building some backstory with some or all of ye.

Mr DM, I think we are just waiting to move forward with the combat at this point right?

the degree of shared backstory will determine who would and wouldn't know about Varx as being a changeling.

if we just met on the ship, regardless of how much time spent together, he would not have revealed this information about himself.

if we have a shared backstory that precedes this voyage then it is likely it would be shared information.

I can do a short shared backstory, nothing more than a few weeks long, and it can't work with any druids, or elves.  With a bit of preference for someone familiar with city life, and in the port we left from.

A simple soldier. Can share some backstory with another army background.

Any one going to pronounce the time of death or shall we keep up the CPR that is waiting for a while yet?

Wow. You're ready and willing to give up quick.

I've been playing on rpol for 20 years...I'm not saying the GM won't resurface, and I truly hope he (or she) does...in my experience, with a brand new game...an unexplained 5 day absence usually means it's a done deal.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:58, Sat 13 Feb 2021.

Consider me rpol jaded

I must unfortunately admit that this fits my experience as well. But anyway, got nothing better to do, so I'll wait...

I'll wait as well. DM hasn't signed in since the Feb 7th so it could just be real life has him held up.

I'm around if this ever kicks up again. Here's to hoping everyone is alright.

   Quick message to let everyone know I'm leaving the game, for obvious reasons. No hard feelings, it's hard to run games on RPoL even in the best circumstances.

  Good luck with this and other games on RPoL. See you around.