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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Insight" data-source="post: 1680616" data-attributes="member: 11437">Chat & CombatI wanted to post something about how I would like the chat sessions to go for this game.  Having thought this through, I think I have found some middle ground between what needs to be done in order to ensure we are moving the game forward and what needs to be done to best use the chat format to our advantage during the game.Chat - GeneralI would like as many people to be on AIM as possible.  This just makes it a lot easier to relay technical information about the chat format, as that is what I am most familiar with.  If you absolutely cannot run AIM, your chat client needs to be one that has a built-in die roller that can accomodate d20 rolls.If you're not sure how to use the die roller in AIM, ask one of us during the chat.  The best way to do it is to copy the syntax to your computer along with 1 and 20 in the variables, so you can simply paste that into the chat window and get your die rolls going.  1d20 is pretty much all you're going to roll for M&M, so after that, you should be good to go.Most of the time, your characters will be together, or at least mostly together in the same general area.  But there will be times that the characters will be separated.  Rather than create a huge headache and run separate IMs with everyone, I am going to run all of these in the main chat.  I ask each of you to exercise your player vs character knowledge sensibilities in these situations, and not take actions based on player knowledge.  In a perfect world, we would use the chat technology to completely avoid such a situation, but in practice, I have found running multiple chat windows hard on the GM and painfuly boring to the players who are not involved.CombatAll right, this is where it gets a little more tricky.  We need to have some guidelines to make combat run smoothly.  M&M combat is designed to be easier on everyone involved, and enable some fun and exciting gameplay.  To this end, I have come up with some guidelines that I think will continue the spirit of this sort of gameplay.There needs to be an order to things during combat.  For actions, this obviously is controlled through the use of the Initiative component.  Thus, the characters will roll their Initiatives at the beginning of combat, and we will use that as a basis for their order of actions.  When everyone has rolled Initiative, I will announce the order, including villains.  I will be keeping track of the order offline, and will update with changes, such as held actions, etc.  To make things easier on all of you, for each action, I will announce whose turn is up, and who is next.Here is an example of what will happen at the beginning of combat:GM: Everyone roll Initiative...<each Player rolls online><offline, GM composes list of order, including villains>GM: The order of actions will be Surge (villain), Water Dragon, Silver Lion, Doc Hazard, Giga-Bite (villain), Hinder, and Pitch Black.GM: Surge (villain) is up.  Water Dragon is next.... and so on.  In this situation, since a villain is up, the player for Water Dragon should think about what he wants to do.If the scene has not already been properly set, the GM will reset the scene for everyone, before any actions are announced.  Continuing the example...GM: Surge stands in the middle of the warehouse, and Giga-Bite is about 20ft to the left.  Around the villains are stacks and stacks of crates of various shapes and sizes, along with equipment used to move the crates around - forklifts and the like.  The heroes have arrived through a large pair of shipping doors, and are about 40ft from the villains.Finally, the GM asks the player what they will try to do.  It is important to note that when you describe what you are trying to do, state a specific action ("Pitch Black will fly forward 40ft and punch Surge.").  This must be done to move the action forward.  If you have a specific question before taking an action, IM the Game Master.  If its a more general question, feel free to post it in the main chat before declaring your action.  General questions I would define as things that are likely to affect everyone ("How dark is it in here?"), while specific questions are things that just pertain to your character ("Do I detect the use of psi powers in here?").In the case above, since a villain is going first, the GM acts as a player, and states the villain's intention, as such:GM: Surge starts spinning and moves 30' toward the group of heroes.Since there are no rolls or other actions/reactions to handle, the villain's action is complete, and the order moves on.  At this point...GM: Water Dragon is up.  Silver Lion is next.Water Dragon's player has already decided what to do, so he posts...Water Dragon: I turn into water form and shoot Surge with a volley of water.At this point, the action may move to IMs between the GM and the player, if additional information is needed.  The GM will ask the player to make rolls and give modified results in the IM.  If an NPC has a reaction to the player's action, the GM will post that in the main chat, thusly...GM: Spinning wildly, Surge tries to move aside to evade the attack.Now here's the cool part.  No matter what the result, the Player posts the final result.  He gets this information from the IM between himself and the GM.  Let's say in this case, Water Dragon hit and damaged Surge...Water Dragon: Surge takes the torrent of water right in the gut, sending the villain sprawling across the warehouse floor.  Surge seems somewhat injured by the attack, but not knocked out.Then, the GM moves the order forward once again...GM: Silver Lion is up.  Doc Hazard is next.... and so on.  As a player, you have three main responsibilities during combat.  First and foremost is to pay attention to whats going on, so as to alleviate as much as possible the delays in getting the action moving.  Second, try to prepare your actions as much in advance as possible, again to help keep the action moving.  Finally, you are responsible for describing part of the action, so do your part in making the game fun and exciting for everyone!Die Rolling & ResultsI ask that everyone apply their modifiers to die rolls, unless otherwise instructed.  Please only roll the die and then post the total.  I don't usually need to know your modifiers etc.  If there is a question or issue, I would prefer to handle it through IMs rather than in general chat.For Save DCs against your attacks or effects, I would ask that you advise the GM of that during the IM resolution phase of your action.  This is especially important if your Save DCs have changed due to Power Attack or some other reason.Let's go back to Water Dragon's attack in the previous example.  The following would transpire in an IM rather than in the main chat.GM: OK roll your attack.<Die roll shows up in main chat as raw d20 result of 17>Water Dragon: Thats a total of 28 on the attack.GM: That hits! What's the DSDC? <-----  Abbreviation for Damage Save DCWater Dragon: 25. <----- this is the total: 15 base + ranks<GM rolls the Reflex save (he has evasion) and posts about Surge trying to evade the attack>GM: Surge tries to dodge, but takes a stun hit.Then, the player posts the result to the main chat.  That's basically how it will work.As always, I will try to keep this updated as much as possible.  We will most likely encounter things I haven't covered in this email, especially with the first session coming up.</blockquote>

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