Blizzard at Revel's End (OOC) Temporary Hiatus

[Steve Gorak]

Hey guys,

Sorry about the if/then scenarios in my ooc post. The GWM benefit complicates things a bit, so does the divine fury conditional damage. And Thorbin got a crit, so another set of rolls, also conditional.

I wanted to ask, is there a dice roller out there that can handle a large number of rolls? I’m posting from my cellphone, and it’s a pain to run 4 different pages on coyote code.
Cheers,

Sg

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I wasn't sure where anything was located or what was still alive. That's why Lex attacked the crab climbing the wall. There were probably allies in more dire straits but....

I'll take that as a vote to keep posting the maps. I really wanted to play more "theatre of the mind"-style in this game, but I understand that it's easier for people to look at the maps. Besides, I like making maps. I just don't like having to update the position descriptions. I'll keep it in mind.

 

[jmucchiello]

Then I would have to leave the game. I get very frustrated without at least dots indicating relative location of combatants. I've used minis at the table since 1982. There wasn't always a grid. But I always knew who was to my character's left or right, across the room, etc.

 

[Steve Gorak]

I'll take that as a vote to keep posting the maps. I really wanted to play more "theatre of the mind"-style in this game, but I understand that it's easier for people to look at the maps. Besides, I like making maps. I just don't like having to update the position descriptions. I'll keep it in mind.

I vote for maps too. It’s difficult to target enemies, to plan actions and to describe movement without one. I keep referring that the one you posted just for scale, but it’d be nice to see where allies and ennemies are.
Cheers,

sg

 

[jmucchiello]

We aren't in a room together where someone (like me) could point around the room "So x is there and y is there. Where does that put z?" It would take 2 seconds face to face. And two days pbp.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

We aren't in a room together where someone (like me) could point around the room "So x is there and y is there. Where does that put z?" It would take 2 seconds face to face. And two days pbp.

Absolutely. I've always tried to avoid as much back-and-forth as possible. It's one of the reasons why I'd much rather people volunteer-roll skill checks, rather than waiting for me to ask for them. If you think you might need a skill check, roll it! If I don't think the thing you're doing would need a skill check, well then, the dc was probably zero and you will succeed. (Or if you rolled low, I might make you succeed and throw in a story-based complication, or a fluffy failure while rewarding you with the equivalent of a success, or some other fun thing).

Alright. It's a bit of a shame, because I find that when using maps, people tend to imagine an encounter as if they were some kind of godlike figure, looking down on the events, whereas, in a well-done descriptive game, people imagine the encounter through the eyes of their character - where behind you might be blank, but in front of you has greater detail.

Still, you're right, that might be too ambitious for PBP. I'll do my best to give you all the closest I can to the best-of-both-worlds.

Maps it is. I'll be moving the maps to the IC thread in the future, then. (Before I do, any dissenting voices?)

 

[jmucchiello]

As I said, if there isn't some physical definition of who's where, I have no idea what's going on and get very annoyed and frustrated. I've left live games over the lack of information. "Theater of the Mind..." doesn't work for me once there's tactical consideration. I can imagine whole worlds. But not when bullet-time starts.

 

[JustinCase]

I'm fine either way. I do agree maps make things easier to decide actions during combat, but when not in combat (or exploration sometimes) I don't see the added value.

 

[KahlessNestor]

If you like maps, do maps. I usually try theatre of the mind because I suck at maps. Then players complain and I have to make a crappy map LOL Then my perfectionism twitches. Plus, it takes a lot of time. But I like your maps usually

 

[FitzTheRuke]

If you like maps, do maps. I usually try theatre of the mind because I suck at maps. Then players complain and I have to make a crappy map LOL Then my perfectionism twitches. Plus, it takes a lot of time. But I like your maps usually

See, that's just it... I don't like playing with maps or miniatures. (Which is terrible of me, because I sell miniatures as part of my living (for those that don't know, I've owned a Comic and Game store for 27 years). I like making maps here because I've gotten pretty good at it, but at the same time, I find updating them burdensome time-wise, so my feelings are mixed. But I'm a giving GM, and I'm happy to go with what my players want. If jmucchiello needs maps, and no one else cares (or want maps too), then I'll definitely post maps.

The only reason I considered not using maps in this game, is for ambience sake. (Ideally, it's a confined-horror piece, but then, D&D isn't the best fit game for that anyway). In the end, logistics of PBP and player-needs wins out.