OOC Discussion

Welcome to Blood & Lightning! This is my first time running a game on GamersPlane, so I'm hoping the site will be a good fit for gameplay. I'll be running us through a published adventure, but if the story takes off and everyone wants to continue once the 'official' adventure is over, I'd be happy to keep it going. I've also seen that there's usually a lot more role-play in a PbP than at a table, so the adventure might not go quite as it's written, and that's fine by me! :)

Feel free to introduce your characters here and ask/answer any Out Of Character (OOC) questions. If you need help with your character creation, you can either ask here or PM me.

Once we get started, I'm planning on posting twice a week, but I'd be willing to make additional posts if the situation demands it (you need a quick response, etc). I'd like to schedule my posts to be on the same days each week so we can maintain pace in the story, but I want some input from the players on which days those ought to be. Thoughts?

One of they key components of 13th Age is the Icon Relationships, and the corresponding rolls. When played at the table, this normally happens at the beginning of each play session, but due to the constraints of a PbP, I'm going to put that at the beginning of each in-game day. So when your characters get a night's rest in-game, they will begin the next morning with an Icon Relationship Roll. I'll be sure to remind you when the time comes for those rolls.

Thanks for playing!

Looking forward to this! I'm ok with any day(s) of the week really as it's PbP :-)

Regarding characters I'm toying with the idea of playing a Chaos Mage. I've never played one before, but I'm aware it 's a bit of a challenge & can get pretty crazy, and some of the High Weirdness can affect the other party members, not just the mage. So if all of you are ok with that I'll give it a shot. Otherwise, no problem I'll play something else :-)

Think I'm going to stick to something basic for this one. Perhaps a human ranger...

Hi gang. So I had three character immediately jump to the front of the line and I couldn't pick which one I wanted to play. Thankfully szemely and Jabes took two of them so I can run with a cleric. Haven't decided on race yet, and while healing will be a thing the character can do, it won't be the only trick. As I hammer out more details I'll post again.

Oh...and how should we generate stats? Dice or points...other?

I don't have a problem with you using a Chaos Mage. I'll re-read through that class to make sure I have a good handle on all the mechanics, but play the character you want to play! :)
I'll leave the decision as to whether to use dice or points up to you. There are pros and cons to each, but I don't think mixing it will have that much of an impact on the game.

IF we wanted to go with dice how would we go about it? Attach rolls to a post here? I don't know the syntax for "4d6 drop lowest" on GP. On Roll20 it's 4d6k3.

I always roll 20. Even with 3d6. It's a gift! :-)

(I'll be using the point system)

I'd say for character creation, just roll it on your own. I'll trust you to be honest. ;)

Normally I'd stick to point buy here but since I'm playing a chaos mage, CHAOS ALL THE WAY, right?! :-D I'll be honest with the rolls, scout's honor.

Tiefling Chaos Mage. Acceptable?

From the rulebook:
Tiefling Racial Power: Curse of Chaos
Once per battle as a free action when a nearby enemy rolls a natural 1-5 on an attack or save, turn their roll into a natural 1 and improvise a further curse that shows how their attempt backfires horribly... A typical curse might lead to the cursed attacker dealing half damage to themselves with their fumbled attack and being dazed until the end of their next turn. ...

Tiefling is my 1st choice. 2nd choice, I'll probably go Dark Elf :-)

Tiefling is fine with me. When that power triggers, just run what you want the effect to be do by me before posting it.

Cool! Thanks! :-)

Ok, you're never gonna believe the stats I got on my second roll! (The first roll gave me three 7's so I hope it's ok that I threw it out) Online Die Roller (screencap)

OK...definitely going with a Wood Elf Cleric. Beauty, Strength & Sun Domain. One unique thing: Child of two gods, cursed with mortal form to prove a point. So the question I a have is about the deities of the world. I get that the gods are distant and the Icons are more important, so I have a few ideas for what I would do but I don't want to tread on anyone else's ideas. So any thoughts or opinions?

I don't think much has been said about the pantheon in the Dragon Empire (at least officially), and I'm not planning on doing much with them, but if you want to use that as your OUT, then I'll allow it. It won't have any mechanical benefit, but feel free to use it as a way of injecting flavor into the story.

Yes the official "text in the book" says that they intentionally left it open for players and GMs to define. So, I understand how Uniques are supposed to work, when you say "you aren't planning to do much with them" do you mean "The gods" or the uniques?

I mean the gods. I'll definitely be using the One Unique Things. ;)

OK. I figured that's what you meant but I wanted to be sure

Hello everyone :) I'm playing as a male gnome fighter named Jeremiah Asherton. The following is subject for approval:

His One Unique Thing is fairly simple: He's the Trollslayer of Ashenvale. Basically the local hero of a gnome village, and because gnomes normally aren't into fighting (I think), the fact that he led a guerilla war against this troll named Urgaden and his band of goblins (and won!) for me makes him fairly unique among his peers. Since then, he's been going places, from Axis (where he's been all but banned from the First Pawn because of his nasty habit of starting bar brawls) to Forge (where he spent years learning how to work the smithy from Shivoln Thunderbellows, Fifth of the Twelve Grand Blacksmiths of Forge). His finest work so far is his schiavona, which is a basket-hilted broadsword that's perfectly balanced for his size.

(How he became an apprentice to Shivoln is another story to tell... a story that usually results in a bar brawl when overheard by others.)

He has this habit of gathering trophies from his victories in combat. He once slew a dire rat and turned its head into a skull cap, and after spending days harassing a giant beetle to death (literally), he fashioned himself a crude armor out of its carapace; he later on improved on it during his training under Shivoln, allowing him to use it as if it were plate armor. And as for his most prized victory (Urgaden), he used his facial skin to craft a leather shield that he proudly wields in battle.

Since he's been going about on a vendetta against trollkin especially, I felt it was natural for him to have one point negative relationship with the Orc Lord. Because of his association with (and training under) Shivoln, I thought it best to give him two points conflicted relationship with the Dwarf King.

I've gotten just about everything tied down I think :)

Sounds great!

After reading through the recently released 13th Age adventure, I decided to run it instead of what I had previously planned. As we haven't actually started gameplay yet, it shouldn't make that much of an impact, but if you want to make any changes to your characters as a result of this, please do.

I don't see an issue as long as there isn't anything we need to know specifically... like a class or race has changed for this adventure, or we are fighting all fire-proof monsters or something big.

Yeah I don't see any issues either, unless there are major changes like foolsmask said :-)

I thought through that before making the decision, and I couldn't think of anything that would have an impact on the characters that had been submitted thus far. The only major difference is that there will be more water involved, but that shouldn't help/hinder any race/class in particular.

Hi all! Sorry for the delay! It's been a crazy week at work!

So this morning I already had my tiefling chaos mage statted out but I didn't have a Unique & backgrounds yet. When the idea for the Unique hit me I had to go back and redo the whole character!

So, presenting for approval:



Blackstar, Human Chaos Mage

One Unique Thing: Hero from another world.

Major Tom Sagar is a human astronaut whose craft, the Blackstar, got pulled into a wormhole that transported him to the 13th Age of the Dragon Empire. He regained consciousness among the wreckage of his ship, in the bowels of a Hellhole. He never tells the tale of how he fought his way out of the Hellhole, but his time there, as well as his subsequent solo trek through the Moonwreck badlands, did weird things to him. The tentacles that sprouted out of his back were only the beginning.

His travels brought him to Forge where he did his best to keep his growing weirdness hidden. He had some dealings with the dwarves there, but sadly none of them were able to help him make his ray gun work again (he had used up all its charges fighting his way out of Hell Marsh).

He continues his wandering but little by little, as the chaos magic overtakes him, he remembers less and less about his home world, and his desire to return to his former life diminishes by the day.

Blackstar is a gaunt, 6-ft tall human, though he looks somewhat different from other humans normally encountered in the Empire. His eyes seem to change color with his emotions (often not even matching each other), and his shock of singed hair seem to be a slightly different shade & length each day. On most days, the tentacles sprouting out of his back are hardly noticeable. He wears his worn-out space suit like outlandish padded armor. Strapped to his hip, opposite the useless ray gun, are a jagged titanium dagger and scorched titanium throwing knives that he fashioned out of his ship's wreckage. Hidden in his sleeve is another piece of titanium, scorched and twisted, that he has fashioned into a wand.

Full character sheet here.

So here's the thing about Chaos Mage: At initiative and after each of my turns in combat I have to make a whole mess of die rolls to randomly determine what I'm doing next round: (roll d6 for Spell Type, roll d12 to determine which Icon if spell type result is Iconic, roll d6 for to determine Warp Effect, and the list goes on and on depending on which Talents & Feats I choose as we progress). That's before I get to attack & damage rolls and any High Weirdness effects. The d6 instead of the Bag of Stones for determining Spell Type is particularly clunky but I don't think there's any way around that.

I am going to end up spamming the thread with die rolls. EVERY. SINGLE. ROUND. It will probably get a little annoying.

I've got a few ideas for streamlining this process but I'm very open to any suggestions so my stuff doesn't prevent the action from flowing smoothly. :-)

Doesn't everyone roll dice every round? :) Anyway, I wonder what the GM's plan is when it comes to replies, rolls, thoughts, and actions.

Maybe rolls could be red, and thoughts could be blue, while in-character monologue/dialogue could be green?

Having an OOC section to your post works for me, and I'm used to doing that as well. When you make your post in GP, you specify whether you want to make your post as you or as your character, but it's easier IMO to just have a section where you step out of character instead of making two posts. But whatever floats your boat. As far as using the different colors for text, speech, etc, again, use whatever you'd like to use.

The Chaos Mage does have some extra rolls every round, and if you roll a d6 instead of drawing a token from a bag for your spell casting, you may end up rolling a hundred times before an allowable number drops. And it might take even longer the next round. It might be better to use something like https://www.random.org/lists/. You'll know in advance the entire order of your spell types, but it would save on the potentially massive amount of rolling (i'm betting you're going to hate that d6 after the first combat encounter) ;) If you'd rather keep it a surprise, I can run the list and give you the next spell type after your posts....

I think we're about ready to get started. I need to take another look at everyone's sheets to set my bearings, but I'm hoping to have the opening post up this weekend. If you have any other questions, let me know!

Awesome! Yeah that randomizer will definitely help! I would prefer to be surprised by the results but are you sure you want to take on that task, on top of everything you're already keeping track of? :-)

Looking forward to game start this weekend! :-)

I don't think it will be that much extra work, so I'm willing to go that route. I'll probably just add an OOC note at the end of my posts with what your next token is. If for some reason it's adding too much to my load, we'll talk. ;)

Ok cool! :-) So you'll handle the Spell Type tokens. And the subsequent Attack Warp Effect roll or Icon roll (whichever is applicable)?

That's up to you. I can make those rolls for you and just give you the final results of what you can do that round, but you can do it if you'd rather. I know some people have strong opinions about GMs rolling on behalf of players, and I don't want to step on your toes...

I wouldn't mind letting you roll but I'd like to see the rolls. Not because I don't trust you, but because I want to feel the chaos haha! What would you suggest? :-)

I created another thread that has the dice roller enabled (turns out you cannot enable it after the thread has been created), so if you want to see what the process looks like, spam up that thread. ;) A quick note - you will need to click the 'Advanced' at the bottom or 'Reply' at the top to gain access to the dice roller.

I found out that you are not able to see the results of your roll until after you post. With that in mind, it might work better for me to roll for your Effects. Doing it that way gives you the ability to immediately know what your options are for the next round instead of posting your rolls then posting again with what you want to do.

Also, when we post our attack rolls, we'll also need to include a damage roll (which would only be applied if it was a successful hit). The alternative would be to have two posts per person per round of combat - one to hit and the other for damage.

I'll be looking to see if I can find a more elegant solution, but with the way the site is built, I think that's going to be our best option at this point.

The adventure has begun! A new thread has been created for chapter 1.

I've got to say, I'm pretty excited about this game. Each of your characters are awesome, and I'm looking forward to the story we're going to craft together. :D

Awesome! I'm pretty excited as well!

Just a heads up: I will be away for a couple of days and unable to post. Thanks!

I will be away for a couple of days and unable to post. Thanks!

Hi! I'm back from my trip and anxious to get back to the adventure :-)

Great! My post should go up later today...

I'm headed out of town tomorrow for a long weekend. If Jeremiah gets his combat post up by tonight, I will have my next post done before I leave. Otherwise, I won't be able to get to it until Monday.

RL threw a curve at me today. I'll get the post up tomorrow afternoon.

Is there anyone within melee range of Nyil at this point or will she have to spend an action getting to within range?

You have both a move and a standard action available, and everyone in the scene is within your movement range. So you can do a melee attack if you'd like.

Awesome!

I had Blackstar marked at 14/21hp on the character sheet but went through all the posts again twice and it looks like he took 9 damage and gained 5 temp hp so a net of 2 damage so far. Currently 19/21hp. Is this correct? Apologies if I miscalculated!

I have Blackstar at 15/21 HP. He has taken 11 damage, softened by 5 temp:

Round 1: 1 damage
Round 2: 6 damage and 5 temp
Round 3: 4 damage

Ok, will update my sheet. Thanks! :-)

I've put a few words in Firigin's mouth with my latest post. I hope I haven't overstepped any boundaries! If I have, I'll gladly edit the post! :-)

Not a problem - that's probably the reaction I would have had him make anyway. I think the little twist you've thrown in there is great! :D

I'm glad you liked it! :-D

I'm headed out of town for the weekend. I am aiming to get a post up tomorrow (Friday) morning before I leave, so if you have anything you want to say, now's the time.

LOL! I love that last line! :-D

Glad you liked it :-)

I hope everything's okay...

Sorry everyone - RL has gotten crazy hectic, and I failed to notify you of the situation. Sorry about that. I'll get my next post up in the next two days (Fri or Sat).

No worries, man! Glad to have you back!

I waited 3 days for someone to bite the "tell your secret to reveal the magic item" hook but nobody wanted to so there, I've rickrolled the game with vampiric sparkles :-D You guys had your chance so don't blame me hehe!

My grandfather passed away this morning, so I'm going to delay posting until this weekend.

I'm sorry for your loss, John. Take as much time as you need.

My sincere condolences.

I believe Inidrill is no longer playing. Posted a thread in another forum about not having the time to play on here anymore.

I sent Inidrill a PM to confirm they're dropping out, but the character is no longer in the pool, so I think it's safe to assume we're down to three players (I'll see about getting another player or two to jump in and round it out a bit). I updated the montage order to reflect that....Jeremiah is up!

Going to try and get something for my resolution tonight - sorry for the delay.

This game seems to have hit a pretty major lull...does everyone want to recommit to picking it back up? Or would it be better to just call it good and retire it?

I think it may be time to retire it. If others are interested in continuing I will as well, but if we can't get three or more I say we call it.

I'm still interested.

So...only two of the remaining three players responded, so I have to assume that silversapphire2 is out. Running this is going to be tough with just two players, so I'm going to pull the plug on this little adventure. Thanks everyone for playing - it was a lot of fun! If you want the spoilers/summary of the rest of the adventure, let me know and I'll fill you in.