[OOC] The Forges of the Mountain King- 1st Level Dwarf PCs [Full]

Oh and one last thing I need pictures, pictures of your characters, and don't say use the ones on the CB because three of you have got the same picture.

Find an image that best represnts your guy and put it in the Rogues Gallery please- sooner the better for my liking.

Cheers Goonalan

All the rules sound good, Goonalan. One thing I might suggest to speed combat up is to do a little bit of Initiative shuffling. It's very difficult and slow, from my PbP DM'ing experience, to run combat where the going is Monster/PC/Monster/PC/Monster. I and other DMs I've played with tended to shuffle the order around and break up the rounds in such a way that you got Monsters all going and then PCs all going. So, for example,

Round 1

PC 1
Monster 1
Monster 2
PC 2
Monster 3
PC 3

Would break down to:

Round 1

PC 1

Round 2

Monster 1
Monster 2
Monster 3

Round 3

PC 2
PC 3
PC 1

So PC 2 shuffled down a little and the rounds got broken up but it makes things a lot easier.

Pinotage

Pinotage said:

All the rules sound good, Goonalan. One thing I might suggest to speed combat up is to do a little bit of Initiative shuffling. It's very difficult and slow, from my PbP DM'ing experience, to run combat where the going is Monster/PC/Monster/PC/Monster. I and other DMs I've played with tended to shuffle the order around and break up the rounds in such a way that you got Monsters all going and then PCs all going. So, for example,

Round 1

PC 1
Monster 1
Monster 2
PC 2
Monster 3
PC 3

Would break down to:

Round 1

PC 1

Round 2

Monster 1
Monster 2
Monster 3

Round 3

PC 2
PC 3
PC 1

So PC 2 shuffled down a little and the rounds got broken up but it makes things a lot easier.

Pinotage

Click to expand...

I like your idea, and will attempt to use it- the thing that I don't get in your example is why does PC1 get 2 attacks in three rounds and all the other creatures 1?

Sorry I may be being dumb- also what happens in round 4 in your example?

But I get the idea.

Cheers PDR

Yeah, sorry, it could've been clearer. The original round is as follows:

Round 1

PC 1
Monster 1
Monster 2
PC 2
Monster 3
PC 3

The round remains exactly the same, but only the first time it's broken into sections. So:

Round 1

PC 1 posts his action

DM posts actions for Monsters 1, 2 and 3 and resolves PC 1's action.

PC 2, PC 3 post actions (End round 1) and PC 1 post actions again (Start round 2)

DM posts actions for Monsters 1, 2 and 3 and resolves all PC actions.

As you can see, it really just breaks the posting up a little easier to handle, but keeps the rounds the same (barring the minor initiative change).

Also what this does is allows for flexible initiative as an additional feature which can really speed things up. When PC 2, PC 3 (End round 1) and PC 1 (Starts round 2) post their actions, you allow them to post in a flexible initiative order. In other words, whoever posts first, gets first initiative. That means you never have to wait for the outcome of another PCs action as whoever posts first has acted. You can of course wait, but it does streamline things further. So PC 1 doesn't have to wait for PC 2 and PC 3 to post - he can take first action. Similarly when the PC initiative comes around again at the end of round 2, PCs can again take flexible initiative. It makes things fun if you're dying to take a specific action and you don't want to wait. Hope that makes sense.

As another suggestion, it might be worth adding monster status after each round update such as lightly wounded, bloodied, badly wounded. This means that if a PC attacks a badly wounded creature and hits, another PC who posts afterwards can put in a contingency based on the fact that the creature may be dead.

Pinotage

Pinotage said:

Yeah, sorry, it could've been clearer. The original round is as follows:

Round 1

PC 1
Monster 1
Monster 2
PC 2
Monster 3
PC 3

The round remains exactly the same, but only the first time it's broken into sections. So:

Round 1

PC 1 posts his action

DM posts actions for Monsters 1, 2 and 3 and resolves PC 1's action.

PC 2, PC 3 post actions (End round 1) and PC 1 post actions again (Start round 2)

DM posts actions for Monsters 1, 2 and 3 and resolves all PC actions.

As you can see, it really just breaks the posting up a little easier to handle, but keeps the rounds the same (barring the minor initiative change).

Also what this does is allows for flexible initiative as an additional feature which can really speed things up. When PC 2, PC 3 (End round 1) and PC 1 (Starts round 2) post their actions, you allow them to post in a flexible initiative order. In other words, whoever posts first, gets first initiative. That means you never have to wait for the outcome of another PCs action as whoever posts first has acted. You can of course wait, but it does streamline things further. So PC 1 doesn't have to wait for PC 2 and PC 3 to post - he can take first action. Similarly when the PC initiative comes around again at the end of round 2, PCs can again take flexible initiative. It makes things fun if you're dying to take a specific action and you don't want to wait. Hope that makes sense.

As another suggestion, it might be worth adding monster status after each round update such as lightly wounded, bloodied, badly wounded. This means that if a PC attacks a badly wounded creature and hits, another PC who posts afterwards can put in a contingency based on the fact that the creature may be dead.

Pinotage

Click to expand...

Got it- very usefull, after your post I thought I would try to make it as simple as possible- PCs go, then Monsters go- or vice-versa, kind of average out the init and the higher team get the first attacks. I figure my actions are going to be resolved really quickly (I have quite a lot of spare time at the moment- I'm not really busy again at work till September).

I think the flexible initiative is also the way to go- so first to post gets to go first for the players.

Because I wanted the game (and combat) to go quickly I also thought about imposing a time limit- as in 48 hours for players to post their actions, what do you think to this?

My point is the glorious stuff is going to be as RP-related as it is combat related, I don't want to spend a long time with a player not posting, and with no explanation.

Maybe I'll need to readjust my sights as regards PBP a little way in but my biggest fear at the moment is lag.

Which brings me nicely to the following point- I think we're waiting to see what Kazzagin does next IC. Time for the Paladin to draw his weapon or do some quick talking...

Either way I'll be posting later on to move the story along.

Cheers Goonalan.

Just a point to note, if its PCs first followed by bad guys, and the PCs actions are in order of post (which i admit makes a lot of sense in practical turns), where does this leave the player who has got a good inititative (and maybe even chosen stats or feats to improve it)? Mine's crap, so this would be to my character's advantage.

I suggest that there is either some use of initiative, as Pinotage's original example, or anyone who has made choices to specifically improve initiative gets to rethink these.

hairychin said:

Just a point to note, if its PCs first followed by bad guys, and the PCs actions are in order of post (which i admit makes a lot of sense in practical turns), where does this leave the player who has got a good inititative (and maybe even chosen stats or feats to improve it)? Mine's crap, so this would be to my character's advantage.

I suggest that there is either some use of initiative, as Pinotage's original example, or anyone who has made choices to specifically improve initiative gets to rethink these.

Click to expand...

I would have to concur on the notion of "first-posted, first-to-go." As I'm far behind you all in time zone, I'm still at work after you've all gone home with hopeful free time. I unfortunately don't have access to EnWorld at work (it's blocked) nor the time usually during the work day. This would have me going last most always (which isn't horrible for a healer I s'pose!), but it's also not equitable. I have no intention of holding up the story at all, just it seems based on what I've seen so far that I'm usually last to get to the new stuff on a daily basis as my usual free time is the middle of the night compared to most of you.

I do also concur on a time limit to respond. Anyone who misses could simply be at the whim of the DM (if not in combat) or just loses their place in a combat round (maybe a default could simply be an at-will?). There could be any number of reasons for someone to miss posting, so having a generic fall-back would be beneficial (?).

Love the HRs. Can't wait for "stunts"!

hairychin said:

Just a point to note, if its PCs first followed by bad guys, and the PCs actions are in order of post (which i admit makes a lot of sense in practical turns), where does this leave the player who has got a good inititative (and maybe even chosen stats or feats to improve it)? Mine's crap, so this would be to my character's advantage.

I suggest that there is either some use of initiative, as Pinotage's original example, or anyone who has made choices to specifically improve initiative gets to rethink these.

Click to expand...

Don't know, all I know is I've seen some cobats in PBP where it's just been abandoned because player A is slow on the response. I agree Init should play some part but until we do some discovering for ourselves then...

How it works is open to debate.

Taking Pinotage's example-

PC 1
Monster 1
Monster 2
PC 2
Monster 3
PC 3

What happens if PC1 doesn't post for two days and everyone else does, oh and the example is going to actually be more like this-

PC 1
Monster 1
Monster 2
PC 2
Monster 3
PC 3
PC 4
Monster 4
PC 5
PC 6

And remember when I write Monster 1 it could mean Bugbear Leader, Monster 2= Goblin Cuthroats (several) Monster 3 = 3 Goblin Archers & Monster 4 = easy that's the 8 Goblin Minions.

The point being-

PC2 posts attack so-and-so
PC3 Blah

We move on and

PC1 posts I Fireball the lot and nullifies PC2 and PC3 posts as enemies now dead.

We'll have to figure a system whereby posts don't nullify (too much) other PCs actions, thereby wasting their posts and leading to further delay.

Personally I'm happy to start with the rules as written if that's the consensus and see if we can make it work, or else Pinotage's offering, or else a much simplified version like mine.

Or else I set the scene, we all roll init and everyone has 24 hours to post and then I resolve all actions... in Init order.

The other thing is I'm mostly a benevolent DM, if the story is working and cool things are happening- congrats you get the drop on the bad guys and we go PCs first.

If it's a surprise then my guys go first and you're effectively jumped.

This is completely new to me, so I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Cheers Goonalan.

PS No-one has good Init in your team save the Thief and he's not got Improved Init, I understand that's not the point I'm just saying.

do you still want players or are you full??

Ballad009 said:

do you still want players or are you full??

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Sorry my friend, we're full- you're third reserve.

Cheers Goonalan

Happ hunting.