Against the Giants 5e PBP (Full)

[TerraDave]

Arcana test: 1d20+8=20

Not a bad result.

 

[TerraDave]

@FitzTheRuke

What about perception or investigation? Character searches a chest...There will be a lot of this. Also, stealth. Do we do that, do you?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I wanted to ask you, are you playing with the optional magical guidance sorcerer feature (see below)? I’ve assumed that yes, so I included dispel magic and counter spell in Gimlak’s spell selection (he’d be rather potent at them). If you prefer not to allow this, I’d be more than happy, this way he’d suck at counter spelling (no proficiency in arcana, so can’t recognize the spells being cast) and I’d be free to pick 2 other spells.

Magical Guidance (Optional)​

Magical Guidance is fine. You're pretty much always going to meta-know what spells are cast, because you won't know I cast them until I post that I do (and I'm not going to say "the caster starts to cast something mysterious... I'll just tell you what they cast). It's yet another reason why reactions can be problematic in PBP. We'll just have to do our best to keep metagaming to a minimum, but also not worry about it too much.

@FitzTheRuke

What about perception or investigation? Character searches a chest...There will be a lot of this. Also, stealth. Do we do that, do you?

If you want to make a check, just roll it. Just don't expect that you know what happened until I describe it. After all, you don't know what the dc is. Maybe a 5 will get you something? It's possible. (I tend to thing of rolls in degrees of success. Sometimes a 5 is an abject failure, sure, but sometimes it's a partial success. The main thing is, I have enough work to do - roll your own checks. I don't want to be responsible for your rolls. (That said, if you ask for something, but don't roll it, I might just roll for you, rather than ask you to roll it, to avoid back-and-forth. Nothing slows PBP down like back-and-forth.)

Obviously, I have a DM-style, but my IRL "style" is a little different (by necessity) than my PBP style. There's a few tweaks to how we all might prefer to play that we need to do to keep things moving in PBP.

For example, I would normally not tell you what your character thinks in a face-to-face game. I'd let you do that. But sometimes, here, I'll make a post that sounds like I'm saying what your character thinks of something. Don't get me wrong: YOU are the final arbitrator of what your character thinks. I'm just trying to quickly relay some information to you, by having your character think about it. You are free to choose to reverse any conclusions I seem to have suggested, if you think your character would react to the information differently than I've said!

To me, rule #1 is "Play nice with others". To do this, we have to be open to discussion. There are no stupid questions. Hit me with any feedback you choose. I can take it.

 

[JustinCase]

heya, just so Im clear ic - despite being Yuanti your pc appears to be
human, so I wouldnt be able to pick up any snakeyness?

Same question for @Kobold Stew too: is the Colonel grey skinned but otherwise human-passing?

Doc has the spooky ex-human weirdness
A Dwarf seems like the least of my concerns

Well, his snakey features are hidden beneath his clothes, but I’m sure with a high Wis or perception one can discern clues as to whether he’s completely human or not. Opening his mouth when smelling, blinking only rarely; that sort of thing.

 

[Steve Gorak]

hey folks,

So I'm done with Gimlak's spells. Sorcerers are a bit painful with the spell limitations and I get into the problem of over analyzing.
I was enamored with Geas, but my character is not evil, and charming 30 giants, one per day for 30 days will be annoying (I had the fun thought of casting invisibility, getting into their stronghold, hiding, then improved invisibility then subtle geas), and besides the 5d10 damage for not following the order won't be enough of an incentive for them to obey, so kind of futile. It would work much better in a humanoid village (one day, mouhahaha ;-)

I picked banishment instead, looking forward to seeing it in play. I also went back to metamagic adept (didn't use the +2 asi), so get ready for some twinning fun (actually quickened mind sliver + heighten save or suck spell and silvery barbs as a reaction could also be fun to make sure something lands (like suggestion ;-).
So unless someone finds a huge problem, that'll be him. Please let me know if I missed something on his character sheet, I did it in a hurry, and higher level spellcasters take a long time!
Cheers,

SG

 

[Blue]

So as an interesting bit of Firbolg lore, they don't use names among themselves. So they go with what others have called them, or if asked will pick something usually something Elvish.

So Eoghan is a picked name, and Deep Well is a name someone else called him in the past. And Valda just called him "Tall One", so I used that to describe him. Figured it would be thematic for a firbolg to just pick up whatever others are referring to him as.

But I realized that may make it hard for others to follow, since for other characters that go by multiple names it's in their Rogue's Gallery.

Should I keep it up, or standardize on Eoghan and "the firbolg"?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

So as an interesting bit of Firbolg lore, they don't use names among themselves. So they go with what others have called them, or if asked will pick something usually something Elvish.

So Eoghan is a picked name, and Deep Well is a name someone else called him in the past. And Valda just called him "Tall One", so I used that to describe him. Figured it would be thematic for a firbolg to just pick up whatever others are referring to him as.

But I realized that may make it hard for others to follow, since for other characters that go by multiple names it's in their Rogue's Gallery.

Should I keep it up, or standardize on Eoghan and "the firbolg"?

I say use it until we get used to it!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

On pacing and momentum:

I know I told you that a "couple of posts a week" would do, but I'm currently trying to keep the momentum up and we'll be going a little quicker than that if we can. I'll try to let everyone get a word in before I move a scene along, but if I'm ready to go, and you have yet to post, I might just move along (and assume that you're there, following along with the others). When you do have time to post, just catch your character up, commenting on whatever you feel like, and we'll consider it inserted.

As usual, I welcome feedback and questions. We're only just getting started, but I hope you're enjoying it so far.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

@FitzTheRuke

Thanks for getting the PBP group 2 moving! When in doubt, please feel free to move us along (esp. if you're waiting on me).

I am going to be posting shortly in it. In addition, I am going to make some minor edits to the character in the RG- the equipment is still mostly from the first version of Doc prior to our discussion, and I'm going to amend it to put it more in line with v.2. Nothing substantive- if anything, I am taking items off that are useful "adventuring" items but don't fit in with the character concept anymore.

ETA- I tend to post rarely on weekends, and I also will be likely unavailable the last two weeks of June; but I'll let you know when we get there.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I've been using what I call "a quorum of two" (if two of you agree on an action and no one else has chimed in, I'll go with that action). It helps PBP move along. If you ever want to have not gone along with something, feel free to say so and we'll do our best to fit that in. Sometimes PBP has events move a little bit out-of-order. We'll try to keep retcons to a minimum but sometimes it's inevitable.