Between Episodes

[Mister_Sinister]

First of all, guys, thanks very much for what was overall a very awesome first episode. Couldn't have done it without you all, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Next, I want to offer thanks to veekie, because without him, this game would not have been possible. He's a good guy, and deserves much respect, especially given his schedule lately.

Now, before we proceed with episode 2, a few things need to be addressed. Before I go on, I would like to state very openly that I don't mind character rebuilds, provided that these do not fundamentally change your approach to stuff. For instance, if Veldor wanted to shift a few spells around, but still summoned fiends, that would be cool. If Bertha wanted to turn into lizards instead of bears, that would need a montage.

Thus, without further ado, these are the mechanical issues of concern:

• First of all - pretty, PRETTY please make sure that all characters are 100% complete. Barry being left unfinished for so long didn't really help stuff.
• Due to the stacking of armour and natural armour yielding prohibitive ACs, I'm going to institute the following rule - when you have both armour and natural armour, you only count half of the smaller bonus (rounding up). This is mostly to make sure that ACs stay within sane limits.
• Tome of Prowess rules need to be fully applied, which is something I admittedly neglected somewhat. Thus, all bonuses to skills that are not ranks, stats or training are retyped as competence, irrespective of what they used to be (even if they had no bonus at all!). Additionally, and this is important, no competence bonus to a skill can exceed +3 ever ever ever.
  
• (Mostly for Meepo's benefit) remember that your caster level always equals your character level.
• This one is a bit of a common-sense issue, but transmute rock to mud now affects all forms of stone, whether it's been worked or not. Never made sense to me as it was before, and Nick raising this question made me decide to put my foot down about this.
  
• Lastly, just to speed things up, all out-of-turn rolling will be done by the GM.

Another thing that has come to my attention is stunting being a bit one-sided, due to the nature of the system. With help from veekie, here are some modifications to the stunting rules as they were:

• Stunting is determined by the GM from the writing. If the writing is good, you will automatically get a stunt roll and the better of the two will be taken (the DM will post the stunt rolls at the same mods that you used).
• You may counter-stunt, which can force an opponent to take the worse of two rolls that affect the player. A stunt and a counter-stunt cancel each other out.

That's enough from me - I also wanna know what you guys thought. Let me know anything you liked, anything you didn't like, anything you want to see more of, that kind of thing.

To keep this moving at a decent pace, I'm going to give you guys 72 hours from when this post is timestamped to post here and make all corrections as indicated, and/or post anything you want to say regarding how the game is run. I promise to take all suggestions into account, and I am not unreasonable with this deadline - people have lives too! However, I do wanna keep moving, so please make this happen as quickly as you can.

[Sohala]

Now, before we proceed with episode 2, a few things need to be addressed. Before I go on, I would like to state very openly that I don't mind character rebuilds, provided that these do not fundamentally change your approach to stuff. For instance, if Veldor wanted to shift a few spells around, but still summoned fiends, that would be cool. If Bertha wanted to turn into lizards instead of bears, that would need a montage.

You would be okay with me slotting a wizard level in for a cleric level when I level up?

• Tome of Prowess rules need to be fully applied, which is something I admittedly neglected somewhat. Thus, all bonuses to skills that are not ranks, stats or training are retyped as competence, irrespective of what they used to be (even if they had no bonus at all!). Additionally, and this is important, no competence bonus to a skill can exceed +3 ever ever ever.
  

This counts the training bonus you had us add on? If so that nulls any bonus from anywhere to any skill with a rank in it.

• Lastly, just to speed things up, all out-of-turn rolling will be done by the GM.

Sweet.

[veekie]

all bonuses to skills that are not ranks, stats or training are retyped as competence

I think that answers that.

I got another suggestion, also for speed(we got a couple of chokepoints that wouldn't matter much in a live game, but in a PbP they're pains in the arse).

Cohorts and other NPC companions are controlled by the DM, though their 'owner' can give standing orders or commands anytime as long as they can communicate, which they will obey unless there is very compelling reasons to do otherwise(i.e. suicide without reason).

[Awkward Map]

I don't often play spellcasters and high level ones even more infrequently, but it's been a lot of fun.

Getting my character in order for the Tome of Prowess I want to drop the Truth Domain.  It gives +cleric level in insight bonus to Sense Motive (Psychology).  In its place I'd take the Destiny Domain (RoD 163).  The domain isn't listed for the Silver Flame, but I think is pretty flavorful for the turbulent history of the church.  They have a pretty ace spell called Stalwart Pact that costs XP.  If that's okay even with waiving XP, I'll take the domain.

I think placing stunting into the DM's hands is a good idea.  One suggestion I might make is in addition to posting a cool description of what they're doing, maybe to make their intent clear that they would like a consideration for stunting for a certain roll.  It seems like that might help communicate intentions from player to DM.

For counter-stunting -- do we post up a description of an evasive move or a lucky fluke saving our bacon, then you decide on whether to allow the counter-stunt?

[Mister_Sinister]

Sohala - I think veekie cleared that up quite cleanly. As for the wizard level, go for it - when we level up.

Awkward Map - The domain switch is fine - I can totally understand. As for the pact, I think that's a necessity at this level, so yeah, don't worry about the XP costs. Plus, the party will thank you for it!

On the intention communication thing and the stuff about counter-stunting: you got it in one.

On veek's suggestion: Consider that added to the list.

[Nick]

Meepo's actions.

Go back and allow himself to be healed by his cleric apprentice, instruct crew to evangelize Kurtulmak to the captive..

Go into a private tent during the daily hour Finding the Dragon to commune with Kurtulmak.

Commune.

[Agita]

For the record, I took Stalwart Pact on Bertha. I think I just forgot to cast it among all the other buffs, much like what happened with Freedom of Movement from Barry. Not sure if the SpC version or the RoD version is more recent, but I think it's SpC.

Bertha for her part will get in touch with the big bosses of BEAR, explain the situation, and humbly suggest to wait until Belial has fended off the invaders, successfully or not, then raze him and his cronies.

[Mister_Sinister]

Bertha for her part will get in touch with the big bosses of BEAR, explain the situation, and humbly suggest to wait until Belial has fended off the invaders, successfully or not, then rape him and his cronies.

Correction mine. The SpC version is the more recent one.

[Nick]

For the record, I took Stalwart Pact on Bertha. I think I just forgot to cast it among all the other buffs, much like what happened with Freedom of Movement from Barry. Not sure if the SpC version or the RoD version is more recent, but I think it's SpC.

Heh would have helped Meepo back then with that spell

Bertha for her part will get in touch with the big bosses of BEAR, explain the situation, and humbly suggest to wait until Belial has fended off the invaders, successfully or not, then raze him and his cronies.

Not a good idea to jack a member of the alliance against EoS, you can do it after the main threat is over though

[Agita]

Not a good idea to jack a member of the alliance against EoS, you can do it after the main threat is over though

Bah. 300 bears are enough.

[Mister_Sinister]

This. Is. Sparta?

[Agita]

This. Is. Sparta?

Sparta? This. Is. MADNESS! *kick*

[veekie]

Not a good idea to jack a member of the alliance against EoS, you can do it after the main threat is over though

Bah. 300 bears are enough.

Ok.

[Nick]

Not a good idea to jack a member of the alliance against EoS, you can do it after the main threat is over though

Bah. 300 bears are enough.

Ok.

[Agita]

Speaking of bears, are we using the CR-based Tome table (that I just know I've seen somewhere) or the ECL-based regular table for followers from Leadership? Or are we just ignoring followers altogether for the benefit of all our sanities?

[Nick]

Largely statless faceless mooks unless really important, which I think Sin will deal with it when we get to it. Like how I don't even bother with my caravan crew specifics except a general description of what they are here for.

[Awkward Map]

Ah okay, I see the latest version in SpC.  Yeah it's a little more sane than the RoD one, which allowed at this level +50 temporary hit points when below half health.  It's still useful, so I'll grab the domain.

Veldor asks Meepo for a quite place to pray.  He hits himself with Lesser Restoration to restore some wisdom. Lesser restoration roll for Wisdom. (1d4=3)  So he's back up to 17 Wisdom.

Afterwards he casts Divination.  He asks, "What is dangerous about the eyes of the beings we know of as the Edge of Sanity?" "In the next seven days will Belial be able to hold off the Edge of Sanity from invading?"

Then he sleeps until morning, when he prays for spells.  Among which will be Restoration.

[Nick]

I am of a mind to take on Stalwart Pact and Luminous Armor myself, but only because there is a possibility that we might be split up for some time and we cannot always rely on Agita's buff buffet.

[Mister_Sinister]

Hi all, just a gentle reminder that Episode 2 will begin in about 24 hours from now.

For Nick

Your stuff was dealt with over IM.

For Awkward Map

The truth lies not in time, but in resources. The Edge [divination becomes garbled into a language Veldor doesn't speak here] defeat. Belial's forces will face [more garbling], but success [even more garbling] assured.

[Nick]

Meepo will trek through Hell to speak to Kurtulmak immediately, the results of the Commune isn't very...favorable.

Noxatra is apparently going after the skyship alone since Veldor wants Bertha to introduce him to Father Valentinus.

Are we looking at a 3 way split or will Veldor and Bertha assist Noxatra for now?