Out of Character

This thread is for general chit chat.

I believe I have joined correctly. I will start working on a character ASAP. Great premise by the way.

So i stole this from a guy in one of the first games i played in, it seems to be a general consensus across this web so far so here.

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In terms of updating your avatar, you can set an avatar per character. In this post, I've elected to post as my character for the game, so you can see my character's avatar with my player avatar smaller in the upper corner.

In terms of etiquette and things like that, there are a few things that I've found to be pretty common throughout play-by-post games:

Character actions are posted in unadorned plain text.

The towering man draws the massive sword from his back, setting his stance against the upcoming rush of kobolds.
Your speech is done in bold text.
Internal thoughts are handled through italics. I've seen some folks use colored and italics for this to help differentiate.

Dirty kobolds. Vile creatures. I would as soon bed a devil as I would to see a single of these vermin roam free. the sorcerer thinks to herself as she feels the wisps of poison start to coalesce in her hand.

I do information about the spell I am casting or the actual game mechanic I am using in red font. I also try to include a link to the spell in the post, just a quirk of mine so I can get to the spell details quicker.
Anything out of character is posted using the OOC tags.

OOC:In general, I have a block of information I put at the bottom of my character's posts in combat that I keep in a google doc for quick access:

Casting silence.
1st 4/4 | 2nd 3/3 | 3rd 2/2
39/39 HP | 13 AC | Inspiration 0 | Wild Shape 2/2
Currently Prepared ([*] indicates a ritual spell):
1 - [Heal in Wild Shape form - 1d8], Goodberry, Ice Knife, Create or Destroy Water
2 - [Heal in Wild Shape form - 2d8], Heat Metal, Moonbeam, Locate Animals or Plants [*], Barkskin
3 - [Heal in Wild Shape form - 3d8], Water Breathing [*]

This lets me capture the mechanics I'm using that round, my spell slots available, my HP, AC, special features, etc, as well as my current prepped spell list (for casters only, obviously :) )

Looks like this in text form (remove the '/' character in the first tag to make it work):

[co/lor="red"]Casting silence.[/color]
[co/lor="blue"]1st 4/4 | 2nd 3/3 | 3rd 2/2[/color]
[co/lor="teal"]39/39 HP | 13 AC | Inspiration 0 | Wild Shape 2/2[/color]
[co/lor="tomato"]Currently Prepared ([*] indicates a ritual spell):
1 - [Heal in Wild Shape form - 1d8], Goodberry, Ice Knife, Create or Destroy Water
2 - [Heal in Wild Shape form - 2d8], Heat Metal, Moonbeam, Locate Animals or Plants [*], Barkskin
3 - [Heal in Wild Shape form - 3d8], Water Breathing [*][/color]
In terms of things that make it go smoother, a lot of times in live games, people will wait to roll damage until after seeing if the hit lands. To speed up PBP games, it's common to include both the attack and damage in one set of rolls:

Rogue Rapier Stab with sneak attack: 1d20+5, 1d8+3, 1d6.

This will let the DM grab your damage right away if it hits, or they can ignore it if it's a miss.

Spoilers are very useful for things like speaking in other languages (so other players can read it if they have the language or can skip it if they don't have it). Also useful from a DM perspective for things like perception rolls:With regards to the GamersPlane dice roller, there are some things to be aware of (examples included as rolls on this post):

The system doesn't currently allow for adding dice rolls together (such as 1d10+1d4). If you type in a roll like that in the dice roller, you will end up with 1d10+1 and a second roll of 1d4.

You can put multiple rolls in a single line, very helpful for advantaged rolls:

Advantage Attack Roll: 1d20+5, 1d20+5, 1d8+3

Reroll Aces is from other game systems where you "explode" the die when it gets its maximum value. So if you were to roll a 1d6 with reroll aces, and you got a 6, it would reroll the 6 and add the new dice to the total in addition to the 6. Example below.
This is all just stuff that I've seen and used throughout my various times playing and running games.

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[quote=""] These were the rolls he made on the post as examples [/quote]
Rolls
Rogue Rapier Stab with sneak attack - (1d20+5, 1d8+3, 1d6)

1d20+5 - ( 15 ) + 5 = 20

1d8+3 - ( 4 ) + 3 = 7

1d6 - ( 5 ) = 5

Broken Adding Dice Together - (1d10+1, 1d4)

1d10+1 - ( 3 ) + 1 = 4

1d4 - ( 3 ) = 3

Advantage Attack Roll - (1d20+5, 1d20+5, 1d8+3)

1d20+5 - ( 7 ) + 5 = 12

1d20+5 - ( 2 ) + 5 = 7

1d8+3 - ( 3 ) + 3 = 6

Reroll Aces - (10d2, RA)

( [ 2, 1 ], 1, 1, 1, [ 2, 2, 1 ], 1, 1, [ 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 ], 1, [ 2, 1 ] ) = 26

Clearly the rolls arent done on this roller cause i copied it but you get the idea :D

That's awesome, thanks CaveJohnson!

Yea, when you See Dramasailor next thank him, i stoled it from him :D

I will post tonight after work.

While thinking about something for Altrix to do while listening to the tavern speech, a bolt of inspiration has hit me. I have decided to give him a smoking habit. I can see him lighting up during periods of concentration or high stress. I'm also a big fan of nicknames for characters so feel free to refer to him as Smokey or some such.

Also in addition to finding a Copper benefactor to serve, I could see him getting a long-term goal of establishing a high-quality tobacco farm and distribution network. Something for him to do with all the treasure he gets that he doesn't turn over to his benefactor. All of this depenent on you being cool with it Qralloq? If you are how much would you like me to pay for a really worn out pipe and a pouch of low-grade tobacco? I was thinking he might be able to find better stuff in a treasure hoard or shop. The only rules I could find was in 3.5e which said a pound of tobacco was 5sp and nothing on a pipe's cost.

EDIT: Oooh okay this keep evolving in addition to the tobacco, the farm could have high-quality livestock that he butches and sells on and an awesome brewery and/or vineyard. Basically, he could build a business around high-grade meats, cheeses, tobacco and drink. Sorry if I am getting ahead of myself I just always like a long-term goal that gives my character to actually funnel their wealth into. Gives a purpose to the adventuring. At this stage, though he is solidly focused on survival and finding a benefactor since that is an extension of his survival. As we move up the hierarchy of needs that's when he'll consciously realise this deep-seated desire.

I can also see downtime activities around this too. Finding a good few acres, finding an overseer to look after it while he is away, attending tastings to find good products, arranging to have livestock sent back etc. I can also see little eccentricities, like cutting up dead monsters to see if they taste any good and keeping a journal to record his impressions. If you are good with the idea Qralloq I will drop kleptomania from the character and replace it with this. The only exception would be the lust for gemstones since that would form his Guilty Pleasure and tie him back to his Copper ancestry.

That definitely sounds like a good plan. I would think a good carved bone pipe might be a 1gp. This town has Adriaan carvers, so you should be able to commission one for a few gold that is stylized as a copper dragon.

Hey Qralloq. In terms of character backstory/development so far I am thinking that Iathos got apprenticed to the local alchemist by his long-suffering parents (Tiefling artisans, let's say boring but stable carpenters) but he had more enthusiasm than real skill. He's been really struggling to get his potions/math/alchemical theory straight. But he loves the broad stroke ideas of being mystical/mysterious/having awesome powers. So when he stumbled on a funky tome in the master's library detailing something called a "hexblade" he just couldn't help himself. It contained vague tales of an eldritch power that granted strange gifts to mortals - and an incantation to the being! Iathos fervently recited the incantation over and over again over the ensuing weeks and eventually attracted notice [of a patron who we need to figure out] and swore a pact.

Having said that, I'm not really familiar with hexblades as entities / their goals so I have no idea what it would want of Iathos in the short or long term. Really happy for you to suggest things as you see fit. After some quick googling I see that Hexblade patrons can be sentient weapons or powerful entities from the Feywild. Maybe building on Iathos' Levistian heritage, it might make sense if he had attracted the notice of some sort of Winter Court Fey? Maybe the Queen of Air and Darkness or something? Or could go in totally the opposite direction. Happy to hash this out over the course of the story.

For the moment Iathos is utterly entranced by his new-found powers (and the escape from dusty books and math lessons). But he's also not really understood the gravity of being pact-sworn, or how it could get him into trouble. I see him as a bit of an excitable and not too carefully thoughtful type who hares off after things that seem fun.

Yeah, the Hexblade is a weird patron. If you're okay leaving it in my sadistic, er, trusting hands, we can build the relationship as we go.

Totes!

We are all outdoors, my friend. Your group left the tavern, and went to the mayor's house. Upon arriving there, you found Valinar out front chopping firewood. So you are being rude to Valinar outdoors. There is no door to walk out of. ;-)

Also:

If Valinar had been in the tavern, now would be when he pokes fun at someone who claims to "Need no assitance from you people." but also says things like "Who is with me my fellow adventures?"

But Valinar was not at the tavern, and player knowledge shouldn't inform character knowledge.

I assumed we went indoors to speak lol

Also don’t take offense to him. By you people he meant paladins there is backstory to explain why he doesn’t like palidins. Once we get together ask him about it

Valinar may or may not take offense. But not me, the player. I know it's just roleplay. :-)

Okay I misunderstood the setup. I thought the mayor walked with group to his house (even though he let Hasan lead). That's why Valinar addresses Aberwell:
But I realize now that Aberwell went ahead home, then the party followed, led by Hasan. So now it doesn't make sense for Valinar to be outside, chopping firewood, if the mayor was already inside LOL!

What I had intended is that Valinar was there alone when Hasan et al arrived. The Mayor would arrive later.

you cray cray camp...
i assumed that the mayor dude was there waitin for us. :Shrug: idc either way

Hey whistler don’t forget you can post as your charecter