Hethas' Gambit: Game of Death discussion [rnd 5]

[reapersaurus]

How many games do you run IRL, seasong?

It seems like your work as insane as it has been, and your game on Friday nights, and don't you have at least one game all one weekend day? - that it's been very hard to find any time for the GoD recently.

I'd hope that it wasn't a choice between your sleepless night and an update for our Game.

 

[seasong]

I play in a game on Monday nights. That takes up 3-4 hours of my week as stress relief - if I wasn't doing that, I'd be doing video games instead .

The past week hasn't been due to gaming, however - it's been due to sleep and general tiredness. I haven't BEEN gaming, I even skipped the Monday game that I play in so I could sleep last week.

Anyway, speaking of which, I can't stay up tonight, either. I just don't have the energy right now. So here's a starter. Each time I delay, I'll try to include another, since individually they don't take up much time at all .

36 - Xiao Fung (Number47)

Xiao Fung casts a spell, and Hagbard is suddenly revealed at (15,11)! Xiao Fung then waves his wand and drops an ice storm for 24 dmg (this also hits Polar Bear 2). The bear dies, but Hagbard yet lives!

His face purpling, Xiao Fung casts again, and lightning arcs into Hagbard for 57 dmg. Hagbard, his face blackening under the coruscating energy, falls.

From the other side of the wall, Mrs Stampy bellows with rage, and prepares to attack.

 

[Jeremy]

Quick and dirty. Pounded in a thunderous crash, then fried to a crisp when still standing, bloodied and bruised.

Now we wonder if 'falls' is 'dead', or 'knocked down' and we still wonder which one of the two spell hurlers bit the dust.

Though it doesn't look good for Hagbard's shot at living through it.

 

[DM with a vengence]

I have a bad feeling about this.

 

[Jeremy]

MORE!!

 

[cool hand luke]

please?

 

[seasong]

Note: My home computer is having more problems. I'll be doing a few more of these this afternoon, when I anticipate having some more time.

29 - Osirdar (Jeremy)

Position unknown.

However, Duder seems to have some idea, because the dwarf starts looking around wildly, his face paling somewhat.

28 - Hagbard the Chartreuse (DM with a Vengence)

Hagbard has a new strategy. He lays prone. Hopefully Mrs Stampy will avenge him.

23 - Master (reapersaurus)

Master casts a spell, and the ioun stone orbitting Blaster's head glows momentarily. He and Mr Wonder (his bat) then act in concert. The bat pulls and activates a feather token (fan) to counter the wind (down to 15 mph), while Master drops the force cube and flies into the air (8,69, +10 ft).

Master drinks a potion, and Mr Wonder draws from a back at Master's side, tossing a small, tan ball towards the ground. The wind grabs it and carries it about 20 ft south to (8,73), where it grows into a tan-furred lion and the wind ceases to matter to it. (8,72)-(8,73).

Master reactivates his force cube*, and the wind ceases to matter at all to any of them.

* I promised an explanation. I'm typing that up now.

 

[seasong]

Cube of Force:

Okay, a few things about this item. It has 36 charges, and it has variable settings which cost different amounts of charges per minute.

Reading the text, it is not clear whether or not switching from a higher level type to a lower level type should cost charges, and if so, there is no indication of how many charges it should cost. Nor is there anything explicit about switching back.

For that matter, with a 1 minute duration, and an explicit methodology for deactivating/reactivating, it's not clear whether or not even that should cost charges.

Neither is there any text which indicates what kind of action it should take to activate the cube of force, other than the initial activation of the field - otherwise, it's just putting your thumb on one side of the cube.

If I had read more deeply, I would have come up with THIS ruling: "Deactivating/reactivating costs 0 charges until the minute duration is up; changing levels costs the difference in charges, unless the difference is negative; it takes a free action to deactivate, and a standard action to reactivate."

What I ruled instead, and somewhat erroneously, is as follows: "Reactivating costs 1 charge (the minimum difference between the different levels) until the minute duration is up; changing levels costs the difference in charges, unless the difference is negative; it takes a standard action to activate initially, and a free action to deactivate/reactivate, but the cube can only be reactivated once per turn, and ONLY during the owner's turn."

The free action part didn't bother me too much, because I've been limiting folks to 3 free actions except in special "that would be cool to say" instances. And overall, I think both versions are reasonably well balanced to each other.

As it stands, Master can turn it on and off every round without cutting into his normal actions, BUT he can't do it forever - at the maximum setting (6 charges per 10 rnds), he has a maximum of 20 rounds that he can pull it off, minus whatever spells are cast at the cube.

Note: There are at least three ways around the cube. One of them is accessible to every character in the arena; another is accessible to roughly 50% of the characters in the arena; and the last one is accessible to only a few characters in the arena. And only the last one is very difficult at all. From a pure balance perspective, the cube is a minor annoyance at best.

 

[Number47]

I'm cool with it. I am very appreciative to know the rulings, however. It will become even more important when the cube belongs to me.

EDIT: I think you skipped something. At the very least, an effect that is on Xiao Lung's turn.

EDIT 2: On Xiao Fung's turn, he also disappears into the smoke, correct?

EDIT 3: I think the lion is in the blade barrier, according to your coordinates.

 

[seasong]

I'm cool with it. I am very appreciative to know the rulings, however. It will become even more important when the cube belongs to me.

No prob .

EDIT: I think you skipped something. At the very least, an effect that is on Xiao Lung's turn.

Er, Xiao Fung, you mean?

EDIT 2: On Xiao Fung's turn, he also disappears into the smoke, correct?

Correct. I have that there, and must have editted it out "because he wasn't visible" or some stupid thing.

Xiao Fung is not visible by the end of his turn, although where ever he might be in the cloud of smoke, he will probably be revealed by the end of the turn due to the wind.

EDIT 3: I think the lion is in the blade barrier, according to your coordinates.

This will become a factor on the lion's turn.

As a side note: the tan ball failed its Fort save against the wind; it actually rolled worse than 20 ft knockback, but the bag of tricks has a distance limit of 20 ft before the ball activates, so it turned into a lion at that point automatically.