Rules of Play

Use this thread to discuss the mechanics of playing this adventure online.

My initial thoughts are:
1. I expect posts everyday and due to the slowness of online play the maximum time I will wait for each player to post is 24 hours. The game will continue even if your character has not acted.
2. Real life happens. Please PM me if you know you'll be offline for longer than 24 hours.
3. Use ** to convey thoughts; "" for conversation; bold for shouting. Other ideas or preferences welcome.

What are your thoughts on OOC content within the game thread? I usually just do something like:

OOC: Blah, blah, blahbity, blah.

Also, if you haven't seen the "notes" feature it's a pretty cool way to leave private notes within a thread (as opposed to PMing stuff to people).

Cool with Ooc idea.
I'm going try the notes feature. But can't find it... Help!

You can just click on the icon above and enter a name and it will put the 'notes' stuff in the post. It should look like this:

[ note="Merlin"]Only you should be able to see this, Merlin.[ /note]

(Only without the spaces after the '[' characters.)

So like this...

I think as the GM, you'll be able to see all of them.

It's fairly common to use bold for normal speech here on GP, but I like your suggestions for conventions, too. For myself, I'll try to separate speech as a new paragraph, and I may also put it in blue so that it stands out better. Also I tend to use italics for thought.

"So this would be me talking..."

"This would be me SHOUTING!"

*...and this would be me thinking*

How's that?

Personally I just write posts the way I would see it printed in a physical book. I put a line break in between the narration and any OOC text. But I will basically follow whatever format is agreed upon by all, or whatever he GM dictates. :-)

Perfect, space-seeker, you got it! Go to the top of the class. I might not use colors though... I always find that a pain in the ass.

I would love to post colors, but it's a pain to do that when posting from a phone so I'm fine to keep it the way you have listed it above for speaking vs. thoughts.

Does anyone want to have any pre-set bonds or should we wing it based on our interactions?

How would Szent address Roland? Calling him Roland doesn't seem right, but I'm not sure something like "master" does either.

Maybe there's an honorific to their faith, like "reverend" or "sir"?

I like Sir... Sir Roland, perfect for a knight.

Done!

Sorry for lagging behind in posts... been having an insanely busy week. And that's really saying something, as I am someone for whom a 100-hour workweek is routine and unremarkable!

No problem. My plan is to keep things ticking over unless there's a need to wait for everyone, such as combat.

(Ooc: as a general comment to everyone, when I ask for a die roll please allow me to determine the outcome. As DM only I know the DC, and as many actions are simultaneous if no initiative has been rolled, then I should have the prerogative to interpret the outcome of the round. This is particularly important in play by post)

Whoops- just realized Vicious Mockery requires a saving throw, no rolls on my part.

So, I wondered about what players think about building into this game an easy way to advance. My thought is everytime a thread is completed each character gains one XP. When you get 3xp you advance a level. It would be very accelerated advancement, but I think applicable to the slow pace of pbp.

What do you all think?

That sounds fine to me, PbP is slow to advance as is, so a quicker way is always welcome

One thing I would do in almost all cases is to roll damage, so that the DM doesn't have to worry about rolling it himself or waiting for you to roll it later

Sounds good! :-)

I'm doing something similar with my Skyrealms of Jorune game, though we're still in the first few days of play and haven't got that far yet. So I think it's a good idea from a metagame standpoint. In both cases, it really depends on how fast the GM decides to complete a thread.

I'm all for trying it, anyway, and see how fast it goes.

Well it sounds good. It's in some way similar to the Milestones rule in DMG ^_^

Works for me!

^ THIS, so much this

I've leveled up just the one time in 3 months of play!

Which (if any) of the optional Combat Options from the DMG are you implementing, Merlin?
*Climb Onto bigger Creature
*Disarm
*Mark
*Overrun
*Shove Aside
*Tumble
*Hitting Cover
*Cleaving Through Creatures
*Injuries
*Massive Damage

Sign up rules stated characters based on PHB only for the simple reason I don't have all the books yet. So answer is none. Secondly I want to keep things simple... Running pbp is tough!!!

NP, just checking. :-)
Is this before or after factoring in Rufio's damage resistance from raging? Sorry, not sure which rolls are which so am just making sure :-) If it's before, then half damage is 6? or is it 7?

Jabes, sorry, I'm not familiar with all character classes so please keep me honest by reminding me of effects. I've looked it up and you are correct. I assume it applies to crit roll too, please confirm. So I rolled 8 + 5 so half will be rounded down = 6 pts VERY NICE. I'll correct in thread.

No worries! Yes, I believe it halves all physical damage, including crit damage. Cool! Thanks! :-)

Welcome to my world. ;)

Yeah, it applies to all Slashing, Piercing, and Bludgeoning damage. Crits and Magical Weapons included

Naatkinson, how is your spell casting bonus +6? Thanks.

For my healing word? Life cleric feature, healing spells heal an additional 2 + spell level

Cheers!!

Generally nonlethal blow is chosen after the killing blow, but it's no big deal, ill accept it :)

I don't understand. If you are saying that's how your character will always behave I'll remember that from now I on. But it takes time to assimilate comments for combat and I'm not changing actions after they are posted. Too much hassle and sets a bad precedent.

That's not what I'm saying. In the phb if you reduce an opponent to zero HP with a melee attack you have the option to instead knocking them unconscious. This choice is made AFTER taking them to zero

P198 of the phb

Please can you give me the reference? Cheers.

...very good, thanks. This time Thug is dead. I will accept in future.

That's fine with me, I'll make sure to make it known in advance. Doesn't work so well in pbp otherwise. This can be a dark moment for Elden, his first human kill, made on accident. Shattered innocence and all that

Haha. It is literally character building... The shock of the kill resolves him to be more careful in future.

Oops, cross-posted with Naatkinson :-D

Can you clarify why you might have advantage, Jabes?

Rage. But I guess that's worn off since the battle is over.

Yes we aren't in combat now.

Good thing Elden also grabbed Slink then! :-D

GM's call of course, but I would guess Investigation.

How much HP is Rufio missing? I only saw him take 6 damage and I healed him for 9. Did I miss something?

Yeah, sorry, I remembered the same thing right after I posted. I've changed my post already :-)

As part of super accelerated character progression, you will be leveling up at the end of thread 1.1. I know it's only 2 threads, but you deserve it.

I love you Master :P

Yay! :-D

Err... why does the 1.2 Descent to the Sewers say "Thread locked" for me?

Yeah, same here. Did the trap I triggered cause a TPK? XD

Not intentionally. Is it locked now?

Not anymore. We're back.

Is the passage small enough that Weylan is crawling, or is he able to walk just bent over?

Weylan can probably walk fairly unhindered. I hinted this in an earlier post. The passage is 4' high, so it is very awkward for a 6' human, but not too bad for a halfling.

I've lost track of Rufio's health so I went back through the entire game thread to check:

The Market
6 damage taken
9 pts healed by Elden

Sewer Rats
no damage taken

Pit Trap
1 damage taken

Sewer Guards
6 damage taken
11 pts healed by Elden

Current HP: 24/24

On a side note, he's out of rages for the day (unless all abilities were recharged when we leveled up even though we didn't actually take a long rest, in which case he's down to 1 rage for this day).

Jabes - sounds right about your damage because each time you were injured you were healed. The level up was automatic. No one has ever requested a rest.

I request that everyone keeps their character sheet up to date with spells cast and damage taken/ healed.

What do you mean by "will save" and how do I roll it for Weylan?

I guess in 5e it is a wisdom check.

I am concerned that Feylinde isn't posting much, and hasn't said he/she will be absent. Clocks ticking...

2 questions: How did the cleric cast two 1st level spells in one round? And how is he concentrating on them at the same time?

Shield of faith is a bonus action, and no one has hit him yet.

Not to be a rules lawyer, but you can only concentrate on one spell at a time and if you cast a spell with a casting time of a bonus action you can't use your action to cast another spell unless that spell is a cantrip.

If you want to change it, that's cool, but I need to know so I can take advantage of that too lol

PHB pg 202 under "Bonus Action" and 203 under "Concentration"

Fair enough. I read bonus action on page 189 and didn't see a limitation. Played a paladin and used shield of faith all the time.

Like I said, I'm not trying to push anything. I just want to make sure we're all working under the same rules so there's no confusion. Tell me to shut up if you need to :)

No problem. I like 5e because the rules are simple, so no harm in learning them properly.

I assume the elf had to drop the Expeditious Retreat (concentration spell) to cast Color Spray?

Shouldn't have had to. You can cast other spells while holding concentration, just not other concentration spells.

Huh. I didn't know that.

Ah, well. I guess I'll just have to kick the concentration out of him, despite the blindness.

That brings up another question, though - the elf had already acted this round. How could it cast the Color Spray on Seneia?

I am tracking the rounds in the posts. We are on round 3 now and the elf cast color spray. r1 = cast exp retreat, r2 = used exp retreat, r3 = cast color spray.

Ok. That's what I assumed, but the latest post still said Round 2, so I got confused.

sorry guys, I've not checked the forum in a while, since I saw no updetes (some days ago)... I'm trying to understand what's happening ....

Here's my breakdown:
We surprised (or were surprised by) four people - a halfling, an elf, a half-orc, and a human.
Seneia killed the halfling, Alanya cast silence on the elf, the half-orc pounded Feylinde and got beaten down by something like five of us in reprisal, the human cast hold person on Rufio, the elf got blasted with a fire bolt, everyone missed or ignored the human.
Then, the elf somehow cast expeditious retreat despite being silenced and ran away, with Seneia following. The human convinced everyone he wasn't a target, except for Elden, whose attacks the human keeps dodging.

You are aware you can subscribe to the threads and be notified when people post?

Not correct on two counts. 1. Elf cast expeditious retreat in first round before silence. 2. Elden has not hit cleric yet as it hasn't happened yet and cleric double moved away from him.

Ah, yes, I forgot initiative order for both of those. Thank you.

Hmm… Seneia did catch up with the elf during round 2, right? I thought being blinded only meant disadvantage to attacks (and advantage to attacks against me), not auto-fail. And did I understand colour spray correctly that the blindness only lasts for 1 round?

Who said you auto failed? You missed.

With 20? Yikes.

We aren't sitting around a table, so I can only go on what you tell me. Here are the facts:

Elf blinded you. I said he slowed to cast spell. I did not say he stopped. You did not say you were doing anything to find him, but being blinded you auto fail any perception checks. Furthermore you did not say you were spending ki so it isn't clear to me how you got two attacks after moving. So you are blinded, you can't see elf, you run to where he was and strike that space, and miss, even with two blows. That's not an autofail, that's a miss. The disadvantage is still valid, but doesn't mean you automatically know where someone is, run 40' and have a disadvantaged strike on them. The didvantantage assumes you know where someone is. You were never in melee with the elf.

Right. Lets go with that, then...

Am I at least right in my understanding that:
1. The blindness from the Colour Spray lasts for 1 round?
2. As a Monk, I get a bonus action for unarmed strike each time I use an Attack action for an unarmed strike? That's the way I assumed I was getting two actions.

Gargy

1. Yes, I agree
2. Yes, ok. Thanks for the explanation.
3. If you spend 1 ki do you get 4 attacks?

1 ki will get a monk 3 attacks (4 at level 5)

I was going to say otherwise, but after checking PHB, I realised I had interpreted that detail wrong, as you can have only one bonus action per round. So yes, 1 ki would give 3 attacks, not 4. I may have gotten one extra hit on that rogue that I shouldn't have.

I'm going to be absolutely slammed over the weekend working on an epic Star Wars - The Force Awakens birthday cake. Won't be able to post, sorry!

I'll let you off if you post a picture!

S P O I L E R A L L E R T !!! :p

I'm making a new rule. From now on I'll use blue font for in game side bars. Players will use green font.

Cheers.

Do you want us to continue using blue for in-character speech, or would you prefer bold now (which we've been doing mostly, despite your instructions)?

Yes, bold seems to be the convention.

So that means you don't want us using the new OOC tag. Copy that.

Yep, AoO are only melee ones ^^

Rufio has the Tavern Brawler Feat. Was built around the feat, actually.

So if in place of his attack he shoves this guard prone. Does the feat's 4th bullet point still trigger a bonus grapple attempt even though, strictly speaking, the shove is neither an unarmed strike nor an improvised weapon attack?

Rules say you cannot mov through an opponents square unless it is 2 sizes larger or smaller than you. Sorry Weylan.

Halfings have the Halfling Nimbleness trait:

I know that this is your rule, but honestly I doubt I will ever remember it. I use the OOC tag in all other 15 games that I'm in. I'll try, but I make no promises! lol

Wow. That's pretty cool. Sorry Weylan, for being sorry. Seems you can do that.

Ok... You use Ooc and I'll use green. I find it confusing everyone using same color.

It's not that I refuse, it's just hard to remember for me since I'm in so many games. I can try if you'd like me to, and you can actually change the color of the ooc tags too

How do you change color of tag?

Put in the OOC Tag with a color inside of it(Gonna use a different bracket for demo purposes): {ooc}{color="green"}{/ooc}{/color}

Like so:

Thanks. Now can you explain to me what "I like pie" means, because my son says it all the time, and he hates pie!!

That's hilarious, because I used to say that all the time and I also hate pie. I've never known if there is a deeper meaning to it for some people

Just waiting for an answer to my question so I can post my action for this round. :-)

Jabes, I agree shove is not an unarmed strike, so the shove can't be followed by a grapple.

Ok. Thanks!

Szent's AC is 18 with the shield. I think he's fine as far that attack goes, yes?

I checked your sheet and it said 16.

That's because he doesn't always use it so that he can make use of his two handed weapon thing. From now on I'll write the AC in the post when I explicitly have him use his shield.

Ok, I see you said you are using shield, but you probably appreciate I can't track everyone's character.

Somebody SHOVE that guard so we can mob him /chase the elf before he brings reinforcements!

Does D&D 5th edition allow tumbling or some other method of navigating through an opponent? I assume Szent is blocking the only space from our direction that the guard can be attacked from?

No 5e does not allow that. It's on page 191 of PHB. Shove is a good idea but the problem you are having is you aren't working as a team. Granted you are young and inexperienced, but sooner or later you have to think your strategy isn't working.

There are those optionel rules in DMG page 272 (if you want to use them):

1)OVERRUN
When a creature tries to move through a hostile creature's space, the mover can try to force its way through by overrunning the hostile creature.
As an action or a bonus action, the mover makes a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the hostile creature's Strength (Athletics) check. The creature attempting the overrun has advantage on this check if it is larger than the hostile creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller.
If the mover wins the contest, it can move through the hostile creature's space once this turn.

2)TUMBLE
A creature can try to tumble through a hostile creature's space, ducking and weaving past the opponent.
As an action or a bonus action, the tumbler makes a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by the hostile creature's
Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.
If the tumbler wins the contest, it can move through the hostile creature's space once this turn.

It was established before this game started that none of the optional rules will be in effect (click here). Szent and Weylan have melee access to the guard. If either of them shove him (a stadard rule, not optional) then we can get to him and shut him down. Equally important is getting to the elf before he calls for backup!

At this point does anyone even see the elf?

I tried; I missed. Weylan will try again next round to just shove, rather than combining it with an attack.

Szent should add two more to his strength check, right? Shove is a Strength (Athletics) check.

Good catch, read it as a straight Strength check.

I think the elf is yet among his friends, maybe our best option is just to wait for them to show up and defend the "narrow passage" which is the doorway behind the guard we're fighting now.

Or just leave him entirely. This whole "follow me" thing smells like a ruse to lead himself back to safety.

Rufio only takes 7 damage, yes? Rage grants resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Let me be clear, I am not playing your characters. I will report the facts and you guys just let me know if you have reason to change the facts. This is normal DnD protocol in my experience.

That wasn't criticism. I just wasn't about to mark down half damage on my sheet without confirming/conferring with the DM. Maybe I shouldn't have phrased it as a question.

So:
Ok, copy that. Marking half damage due to damage resistance from barbarian rage. Rufio is now 27/34hp. Thanks!

I am overseas again and don't have my rule books. Can Seneia "sneak" past the guard? She literally has to pass through a threatened square. From what I remember you can't hide from someone who can see you, and surely you can be seen if you pass next to someone. Assistance please.

She would have to have a place to hide in order to sneak. She could, however, take the disengage action to slip by him without taking an Opportunity Attack.

Just to clarify: I wasn't really looking to hide from the guard (although avoiding Opportunity Attack would be nice), but from anyone further ahead.

In this case you roll for stealth - the guard in the room sees you anyway, but anyone incoming must have a passive perception better than your stealth roll... and this is the case if you hide beside one of the walls on the sides of the passageway beyond the guard (you can't just hide in the corridor) ^_^.

At the least by RAW.

So the sneak roll is pointless and trying to get past the guard simply attracts an opportunity attack. At least that's what I think, unless I'm missing something.

From your original description of the situation, I got the impression that it might be possible to slip past the guard. If it's not, I'd like to do what Naatkinson highlighted above and use the Disengage to move past the guard into the room.

Are we at round 4 yet, or is Elden still to act?

I need to resolve Seneia's action. Elden has stated his turn. I have not closed round 3 but alas I am overseas and don't have my books. And now I'm not convinced disengage works because in pathfinder this was called withdraw and was a full round action. If disengage is just an action and you move into a threatened square then disengage that does not seem reasonable. To engage to disengage to get an advantage does not seem right. You shouldn't need to disengage if you aren't in melee. So what do the books say?

Here's is the official system reference document: D&D 5th Edition, SRD

However, it isn't too clear on Disengage: If you take the Disengage action, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks for the rest of the turn.

I'm ruling Disengage is to disengage from melee. To move things along I have closed round 3.

it can't be clear than that... you take the disengage action to avoid opportunity attacks, period.

let's say he want to circle around the guard (it's a room after all) and then leaving the room (if the passageway isn't blocked phisically by the guard):
1) he moves in the guard reach and circling around it doesn't provoke AoO;
2) he take disengage action to leave the reach of the guard without provoking AoO (that's what disengage stay for);
3) he can now continue moving entering the corridor.

I don't agree. Consider the situation it is written for. You are in melee combat and you get hit hard and need to disengage to heal. To disengage you have to move and take the disengage action. That's your whole turn excluding bonus actions.

In your scenario you move, take an action, then move again. I don't think you can split your move either. In pathfinder it was much clearer.

Here are the relevant sections from PHB. I leave interpretation to you.
EDIT: Oops, didn't see that others had already responded. For what it's worth, I agree with Merlin's interpretation in this case.

Merlin, I apologize for my impatience; I forgot that you were on a trip and we're enjoying your game so much.

eheheh forget pathfinder Merlin ... in 5ed you can split your movement between actions ... and disengage is one of the possible actions, with it you forego any other action you could do (unless you've extra actions or bonus actions)...

Anyway, even if rules state that (as Jabes quoted), the last word is yours as the DM ^_^.

Ss19... Thanks for your comment, but ironically I need your post on round 4.

FYI SS19 mentioned in another forum that he's away at a DunDraCon this weekend (2/12-2/15.)

As a heads up, I am ready to wrap up this adventure.

I will write an epilogue later today.

Thanks to all for playing, it has been a blast.

Paul

Thanks for running it! Szent and I had a good time.

It was fun! Thanks for running it :)

Ditto! :-)

Not often do I get to knee someone in the groin to unconsciousness. Thanks for running!

Thanks for the game! It was fun!