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DerynifanK

March 17, 2024, 03:48:44 PM
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Out of Character (OOC) Thread

Started by Bynw, September 01, 2017, 02:22:57 PM

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Jerusha

Bynw, how do we handle additional characters?  Can I introduce the one that Darcy and Washburn are now seeking, or does that fall to the game master?  (Although we sort of already did this with the townsfolk at the tavern.)  Just want to stay within the rules.
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Bynw

In non-free form style games. All of the NPCs (non-player characters) would be played by the GM (game master). Although some control would be given over to the players for important henchmen and retainers. However, this is semi-free-form. So there is more lattitude allowed. As players you drive the story. I'll step in from time to time to give it a push or kick in a specific direction, but it's mainly all you.

You can play the locals, unless I step in with something specific in mind for an encounter. You can play those that add to the excitement or otherwise drive the story. Such as whomever it was that has been spotted. Chances are its not Oswald himself, he's not that close yet. It could be one of his men. It could be someone completely innocent as well. Just enough paranoia to cause issues with the party heading to Rheumth.
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Jerusha

Bynw, does every action in a fight require a roll of the dice?  For example, a defensive move that is not directly related to a strength?

If so, with the luck we are having today, I fear our heroes may not survive until morning!
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Laurna

#63
Also, when can we be able to use an advantage roll of 3d6? Especially when the move is related to one of three character traits?

I had been thinking, that if Wash had been able to do a successful trueth read, than I was considering rolling a 1d6 to determine if the NPC was lying (a Roll of 1, 2, or 3) or telling the truth (a roll of 4, 5, or 6). Would that be acceptable in the future? That kind of rolling is strictly to help pick the direction of the story when things could go either way.

Evie, I love that you filled in some NPC detail for us. That helps a lot.
May your horses have wings and fly!

Bynw

Quote from: Jerusha on December 14, 2017, 09:04:01 PM
Bynw, does every action in a fight require a roll of the dice?  For example, a defensive move that is not directly related to a strength?

If so, with the luck we are having today, I fear our heroes may not survive until morning!


In combat the first thing is an Initiative Test, which is 2d6 but they are added together for the total. The highest number goes first and the others follow in order of the total rolled.

During the characters turn they have 2 actions. Generally Move and Attack. But it can be Move and Move, or Attack and Attack. Or even change weapons is an action, as is picking something up or giving something to someone else. But you only get 2 each turn in combat.

Movement is limited to a maximum distance of 25 feet, if there is nothing hindering that movement.

Attacking is simple if you are within range. If you have Mastered a weapon you get an Advantage with it. So roll 3d6. If you are just Proficient with the weapon it is a Standard roll of 2d6. And if its any other kind of weapon you are at a Disadvantage so only roll 1d6.

If you are successful in the Attack, all weapons do only 1 point of damage.

There are 2 special actions available in during combat.

Focus. This gives you a success on your next attack roll if you get 4 or above.

Evade. Choosing this action allows you to Test at a Disadvantage (1d6) when you are hit in combat. If you succeed, then you take no damage. This only lasts until the start of your next turn.


Normally there are no rolls made to defend against an attack in combat. Unless you have some Trait that allows for it to happen. Otherwise you would have to choose Evade as one of your 2 actions every combat turn.
President pro tempore of The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz Fan Club
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Bynw

Quote from: Laurna on December 14, 2017, 10:12:20 PM
Also, when can we be able to use an advantage roll of 3d6? Especially when the move is related to one of three character traits?

I had been thinking, that if Wash had been able to do a successful trueth read, than I was considering rolling a 1d6 to determine if the NPC was lying (a Roll of 1, 2, or 3) or telling the truth (a roll of 4, 5, or 6). Would that be acceptable in the future? That kind of rolling is strictly to help pick the direction of the story when things could go either way.

Evie, I love that you filled in some NPC detail for us. That helps a lot.


The specific Traits detail when one gets an Advantage generally. There are other circumstantial events that may cause that as well but they would all be on a case by case basis.

You can determine if the NPC is lying anyway you want to do it.
President pro tempore of The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz Fan Club
IRC Administrator of #Deryni_Destinations
Discord Administrator of The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz Discord
Administrator https://www.rhemuthcastle.com

Evie

#66
Quote from: Bynw on December 15, 2017, 07:56:18 AM
Quote from: Laurna on December 14, 2017, 10:12:20 PM
Also, when can we be able to use an advantage roll of 3d6? Especially when the move is related to one of three character traits?

<snip>

Evie, I love that you filled in some NPC detail for us. That helps a lot.


The specific Traits detail when one gets an Advantage generally. There are other circumstantial events that may cause that as well but they would all be on a case by case basis.

You can determine if the NPC is lying anyway you want to do it.

OK, so applying this to my character, I am assuming since she has mastery in Dagger, then she would roll 3d6 when she uses that, but as far as other light melee weapons go (her proficiency), she would just roll 2d6, and if she was trying to use something out of that category, such as a broken bottle in a tavern brawl, her difficulty would go to 1d6.

I think where it's harder to determine is that for our specific traits (especially specifically Deryni ones), the sourcebook seems to attach a standard 2d6 roll for average use of those traits even though they are things the average human can't do, which makes it a little bit harder to determine when it should be considered a task of harder than average difficulty or easier than average.  Though I would think tasks that we do on an everyday basis or have done since childhood (or at least puberty, whenever our talents first manifested) would fall into the lower difficulty range--things like being able to manifest handfire, or simple Mind-Speech to someone we are in direct contact with if they are not shielding against it, whereas things we are encountering active resistance against, or that would be more difficult even for a trained Deryni, would require raising the difficulty of the dice roll.

To pull a few examples from the top of my head, Alaric might have average difficulty establishing a mind link with an acquaintance or even with someone he doesn't know, but who is open to the idea. He would have little difficulty (barring unforeseen circumstances) establishing one with Richenda, since they already share a deep rapport.  He would probably have to force a mind link on an avowed enemy if for some reason he had to establish one at all, there would almost certainly be active resistance, and both the unfamiliarity and the resistance would raise difficulty.

So looking at my character template, my guess is that for spell-reading, most magic scrolls would have spells of average difficulty on them. However, someone might have bothered to write a magic scroll for something as basic as "How to light a candle," so that might be 1d6, while something like "Create a moving ward" might be difficult, and "Ward an entire army on the march" might be phenomenally difficult.  (Can you roll a negative number of dice?  ;D)

I would assume that for game-playing purposes, Aliset's family grimoire is essentially a book of (mostly simple, but perhaps with a few surprises) magic scrolls that have been passed down through her family?  In which case she might require a dice roll to see if there is a spell in there that would apply to the situation she needs it for, and then maybe a second roll to see if her use of it is successful.  Does that sound like a fair way to use that item in game play?

And you're welcome, Laurna! I had to figure out something to do while Aliset was getting her beauty sleep!  ;)
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Evie

Quote from: Bynw on December 15, 2017, 07:53:53 AM
Quote from: Jerusha on December 14, 2017, 09:04:01 PM
Bynw, does every action in a fight require a roll of the dice?  For example, a defensive move that is not directly related to a strength?

If so, with the luck we are having today, I fear our heroes may not survive until morning!


In combat the first thing is an Initiative Test, which is 2d6 but they are added together for the total. The highest number goes first and the others follow in order of the total rolled.


LOL! I hear you about not surviving, Jerusha!   ;D

OK, so we have four players who often post at wildly different times of the day/night.  I am most often able to post during daytime hours these days.  I usually see Laurna's and Darcy's new posts when I wake up the next morning or very late at night.  Revanne posts when she can, often but not always during (my) late afternoon.  So when we are rolling for initiative, do we have to wait on each player to roll their dice and post the results separately (which may delay any further game play for 24 hours or more), or can one person (maybe with the agreement of the others in the OOC thread, if preferred) use the dice roller page to do 4 initiative dice rolls all at once, using the comment window to specify "Dice 1=me, Dice2=Wash, Dice 3=Darcy, Dice 4=Columcil" and then post the results to the game thread, then let the individual players react accordingly in their scenes?  I think that might be one way to keep combat from dragging on for days, with simply figuring out who moves first taking up hours that could be better spent actually coming up with and writing our scenes. Or maybe if it looks like we are about to end up heading into a combat scene, we could PM Bynw to roll initiative for us and post the results, and then we could take up our scene writing from there?
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Bynw

#68
Quote
There could be circumstances where rolling at a Disadvantage would come into play or even rolling at an Advantage. You could potentially play a Deryni character who doesn't know they are Deryni and has no training or something of that nature and roll their Deryni traits at a Disadvantage.

I think that was one reason for the request for clarification, as we have two player characters who are Deryni but either don't know it (Darcy) or are aware of it but aren't trained (Columcil).  Can we assume that if someone untrained has at least managed to use a trait in a specific way successfully before (even if they didn't consciously know they were using a Deryni talent to do it), they would have less difficulty doing it again in future, which would raise their chances at a second or later attempt to 2d6 rather than 1d6?  Or would it still be 1d6 until they receive training?  I can see Columcil, for instance, being experienced enough in Healing by now to be able to roll 2d6 even though he's not trained in it, just like Alaric and Duncan were able to develop their Healing talents without formal Healer training.
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Bynw

Quote from: Evie on December 15, 2017, 09:30:53 AM
Quote from: Bynw on December 15, 2017, 07:53:53 AM
Quote from: Jerusha on December 14, 2017, 09:04:01 PM
Bynw, does every action in a fight require a roll of the dice?  For example, a defensive move that is not directly related to a strength?

If so, with the luck we are having today, I fear our heroes may not survive until morning!


In combat the first thing is an Initiative Test, which is 2d6 but they are added together for the total. The highest number goes first and the others follow in order of the total rolled.


LOL! I hear you about not surviving, Jerusha!   ;D

OK, so we have four players who often post at wildly different times of the day/night.  I am most often able to post during daytime hours these days.  I usually see Laurna's and Darcy's new posts when I wake up the next morning or very late at night.  Revanne posts when she can, often but not always during (my) late afternoon.  So when we are rolling for initiative, do we have to wait on each player to roll their dice and post the results separately (which may delay any further game play for 24 hours or more), or can one person (maybe with the agreement of the others in the OOC thread, if preferred) use the dice roller page to do 4 initiative dice rolls all at once, using the comment window to specify "Dice 1=me, Dice2=Wash, Dice 3=Darcy, Dice 4=Columcil" and then post the results to the game thread, then let the individual players react accordingly in their scenes?  I think that might be one way to keep combat from dragging on for days, with simply figuring out who moves first taking up hours that could be better spent actually coming up with and writing our scenes. Or maybe if it looks like we are about to end up heading into a combat scene, we could PM Bynw to roll initiative for us and post the results, and then we could take up our scene writing from there?


That is one of the advantages and disadvantages of play-by-post. There is a higher degree of lag time between actions of the various characters since the players are not always online at the time time. But it also gives the players more time to think about that is happening in any given situation.

For the initiative right now it would be 3 rolls. The bad guy (which can be rolled by anyone, even me.) And Wash and Darcy. The other characters are not currently involved in the combat area right now so they wouldn't be able to roll for initiative as they are occupied elsewhere.

To speed things up. One can make multiple rolls in advance of needing them. They would be used in order as needed until depleted. That does require some record keeping as the rolls aren't done on the spot. But it gets a little crazy doing every roll like that. So maybe just to the initiative rolls in advance.  Or of course have 1 person make the rolls for everyone involved in the combat as well. Except one would still have to wait until the next person posted to see what that person does in combat.
President pro tempore of The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz Fan Club
IRC Administrator of #Deryni_Destinations
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Jerusha

OK, I think I've got it now.  Thanks to all!
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Bynw

President pro tempore of The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz Fan Club
IRC Administrator of #Deryni_Destinations
Discord Administrator of The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz Discord
Administrator https://www.rhemuthcastle.com

Evie

Jerusha and/or Laurna, about how far out from the church do you envision Darcy and Wash are? I imagine it's going to be several rounds of combat (and probably post-combat) before Aliset makes it to where they are, since I can't imagine they're just across the road given your previous descriptions of how you got to your present location, but since she seems to be making her headstrong way in that direction, I figure it might be helpful to know that. LOL! She's likely to come wandering up soaked to the skin (I'm guessing if there's lighting and thunder close by, rain is starting to fall by now) and completely out of sorts long after your encounter is resolved at this rate. LOL! And God (or at least Anne) only knows if she's managed to wake Columcil or not!   ;D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Jerusha

I'm thinking at least a mile.  Washburn had them walk through the stream for about a mile, so it's about a mile back to the main road and then a little farther beyond that junction.  Aliset and the good Father may actually meet them partway along the path, if Darcy and Sir Washburn are dragging their injured captive back with them.  I suspect Austin has not wanted to actually get himself killed.  But I could be wrong on that.  And Sir Washburn may have other thoughts.
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

Evie

Aliset, muttering darkly to herself: "Are we really caring what Austin wants?"  But she might have a somewhat biased view of things....   ;D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!