Pathfinder 1E [ONLINE] Pathfinder: Worlds Largest Dungeon

[lumin]

Yeah, I had a good time last night. I was surprised that so little progress was made though, I guess everyone was nervous about getting killed. I was laughing out-loud when you guys were afraid to go into the cave because of the two statues standing in the entrance. I didn't plan for that to happen at all, but was a pretty cool effect.

The typing didn't bother me, but hopefully I can get a mic so things can move a long a bit faster. I don't mind Thursday nights, but I could do it an hour earlier if it worked for everyone else. If not, then we can stick to the same time - that still works for me.

Maptool is pretty nice, but it has always felt to be a little overkill to me. To really get the most out of it, you have to go find or build your own tiles and maps which I don't really have a lot of time for. The drawing tools that are in Maptool are more complicated to use than Gametable, so it generally takes longer to whip up things on the fly, and more time overall to prepare for a gaming session.

I like that Gametable makes it so easy to drop in tiles and draw things without all of the built-in overhead functionality that Maptool comes with. Gametable leaves only the bare minimum (leaving the rules outside the program), and is the closest you're going to get to a real erasable flip-mat experience. It's a little bit buggy at times, but it gets the job done.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, I had a good time last night. I was surprised that so little progress was made though, I guess everyone was nervous about getting killed. I was laughing out-loud when you guys were afraid to go into the cave because of the two statues standing in the entrance. I didn't plan for that to happen at all, but was a pretty cool effect.

I'd actually like ot talk about that. Can we get some sort of agreement going? Something like "we the players will try our best to move the game along if you as DM don't go out and maim or kill us for not being paranoid level cautious." Because seriously. We spent like 10 minutes deciding whether to cross a bridge, and it only stopped when I was like "screw it" and moved my piece across. If our sessions are going to be so short, we're not going to get much done at all if we have to be afraid of every little thing like that. We can at least have a standard operating procedure of "rogue checks the door/chest/etc...", you know, things that would be common to check. Don't even make him roll. Just keep his search score recorded and assume he takes 10. If we're especially curious of something, we can ask him to check it more thoroughly (and actually roll). I think that'd speed things up a lot, too.

The typing didn't bother me, but hopefully I can get a mic so things can move a long a bit faster. I don't mind Thursday nights, but I could do it an hour earlier if it worked for everyone else. If not, then we can stick to the same time - that still works for me..

Early is fine for me. As far as the mic...my coughing's only going to get worse as it goes into May. Things don't get better until June when the plant life cools down on reproducing. Even if you don't mind the coughing, for me it might reach a point where it's just a pain in the ass trying to say what I'm doing between hacking.

Maptool is pretty nice, but it has always felt to be a little overkill to me. To really get the most out of it, you have to go find or build your own tiles and maps which I don't really have a lot of time for. The drawing tools that are in Maptool are more complicated to use than Gametable, so it generally takes longer to whip up things on the fly, and more time overall to prepare for a gaming session.

I like that Gametable makes it so easy to drop in tiles and draw things without all of the built-in overhead functionality that Maptool comes with. Gametable leaves only the bare minimum (leaving the rules outside the program), and is the closest you're going to get to a real erasable flip-mat experience. It's a little bit buggy at times, but it gets the job done.

Yeah, Maptool is awesome, but way more complicated. Gametable seems to work. It would be better if you could pre-draw the rooms (if that's possible). So I don't go and move through a wall without knowing one is supposed to be there and such.

 

[lumin]

Gametable does allow you to pre-draw the map. I already have a large portion of it mapped out, I'm simply unhiding it as you move along. The larger rooms are tricky because you cannot see outside of your light radius, so it's easy to move several squares and run through a wall before I've shown it.

For next time, I can try to automatically reveal some of the more mundane things in the rooms without having to roll as much (like perception checks). The first two rooms that you guys were in weren't meant to have much in them. From that point onward, however, just about every room will have something interesting to discover.

I was thinking that for very large rooms, I can draw a visual marker for you guys to see how far your light radius goes. This way you can make sure to stop there so I can reveal more of the map.

 

[Mr. Also]

I was also thinking that to keep things more organized that maybe, just maybe we should work under initiative at all times. Essentially each person taking turns at movement and actions; inside combat or not.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I was also thinking that to keep things more organized that maybe, just maybe we should work under initiative at all times. Essentially each person taking turns at movement and actions; inside combat or not.

I think it'd have the opposite effect. With that setup, everyone who's indecisive would just skip their turns anyway at best. At worst, you could have someone who wants to actually do something but then has to wait for every single other player to reply "not doing much," which can be lengthy in an online game where people often go "mini afk" for small amounts of time when not much is going on.

That said, whenever we get into a situation with NPCs where there's any chance of combat breaking out, I'm in favor of doing initiative right away. I hate it when before a fight people just start shouting off all the actions they want to take to buff or use diplomacy or get in the first attack (an aggressive intent is actually what should trigger init, if nothing else. Just because you want to go first doesn't mean you're going to be the first one "on the draw.") A PC or one of the NPCs seems eager to start mixing it up? Roll init. If the aggressive one can go first, he'll probably start a fight, whether his friends agree or not (of course, if he has to move past an ally, they might be able to use an AoO to grab and restrain him). If the diplomat goes first, maybe he tries a rushed diplomacy to make them friendly. Whatever.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Game tonight

Same IP address as last week?

We using Skype again?

 

[lumin]

Yeah, let's use ExiledRogue's IP address again. I'm going to try to have a mic this time, so let's try skype again.

I'll see you guys tonight at the same time.

 

[ExiledRogue]

I'll have the server set up at 10 Eastern again.

See you all then.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I'm curious, how did you come up with all of these nice masterwork weapons? Forgive me if I'm missing something, but I doubt you could have afforded these with your starting default gold. Or do the "+3","+2" mean something else?

Didn't even notice this before, but to answer your question, those plusses are my attack modifiers with the weapons. So, for example, with the longsword I have +1 BAB and +3 from str, for a total of +4.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

So, umm...Drekken, you still posting here? Anyone heard from him?