OOC Discussion

During the game if you have out of character chatter or questions too long for an OOC section at the end of a post, ask them here. Anything goes here.

FYI - traveling on business tue/wed - so likely out of pocket. I'll probably have my FAD stuff with me (it's pretty lightweight) for Tuesday night from the hotel, but not my D&D5E stuff.

No problem, falryx. Also, just a heads up for everyone. I put some prices to the guns, and added another property of "restricted". These are weapons you are not likely to find through normal channels. I also added a few items, and a new pistol that is the "lowest" class of pistol. It is comparable to like a crossbow, and is small and concealable, but given that most modern armor has damage reduction for ballistics, it is best as a sidearm if you can help it. Also if you look over the weapons notice the higher pricing. I looked at general stats and damage and gauged on that. I'm working on building up this "scenario" in a repo on GitHub (web developer in me deems it so). I'm also working there on the gunmage class, and if the 'warforged' could be spun off into an android class that makes more sense.

All food for future game and lore fodder. Other than that I hope people are getting excited about starting this up. Just be ready for lots of home rules, and questions. :)

Updated Weapons List for San Waterdeep Game

Hacking the feed would be Investigate?

Yes. Let's call it that. The rules this far are vague. If we would rather use something else, or make a new stat. Let me know thoughts.

Kessel is leaning towards back door or the pincer move Preserver suggested. I don't want to hog tge limelight though so waiting to hear from Mack, and Breecha's assessment.

If we're splitting the party will we be able to maintain comms? Seems like basic modern equipment but I don't want to assume. This is important because I want everyone to be able to enjoy Kessel's jams haha!

Yes. Your comms setup would easily allow audio communication. You could probably open up a HUD and see visuals too.

Nice roll there Jabe!

As you guys can tell, I don't want Kessel to take a leadership role in the group. Several of my other PC's in other games are pretty front and center so I'd prefer more if a support role here :-) But the democratic approach I've been trying with this group seems to be bogging us down so I'm hoping either Mack or Preserver will take the leader role ;-)

:) Ok. I can do, I tend to be more collaborative than leader and besides, I'm the glass cannon. :)

Ugh. It would appear the RNG doesn't appreciate fleshy beings in San Waterdeep. Another 1!

Must be that Ghost In The Machine

I'm without my PHB, is an initiative roll a d20+dex?

Yup. That's right.

Are we rolling individual initiative, or as a group?

Does Kessel still get a surprise action or did I burn that with the cantrip? (which, now that I think about it, would've been better used on one of the internal cams instead of the external one!)

Can we move this thread to be the same level as the game thread? It's a little deep to go back and forth cleanly.

Kessel gets a turn. Also the two cameras below were internal cameras. You never gained access to any external video feeds. So this is one of the first floor cameras. Your entrance was still masked. Until the gunfire.

No worries! I'll take Scab. :-) Poison spray has only 10ft range though, so I'll have to switch to Eldritch Bolt. Will edit my post. Thanks!

Breecha considers Tymora the XO, if anything because she's the one that can fix him!

Also, as a note for everyone. To her character sheet I added a new skill called "Hacking". It's based on intelligence. If you have proficiency in hacking tools and are trying to hack something you get to add your proficiency bonus. If you aren't proficient you only add your int modifier. However if you directly connect to RAIN (dropping out of conciousness to project yourself into the computer) you gain your proficiency bonus twice. Even if you aren't proficient in hacking. There is more about it in the docs for the game.

So I would suggest we all add the Hacking skill and just base all our checks off of that for things.

Cool! Now I wish I had put more into my Int score! I'm supposed to be the group's hacker, and I have an Int of 10 :-P

Do spells also crit on a nat 20? I just realized that I nat 20'd Mace with the Eldritch Blast so he may actually be out.

I don't believe so. In general crits only double a weapons damage dice, and I don't think it does that with spell casting. I think it's just an auto hit no matter what.

Actually I stand corrected. PHB wording and general concensous from 5e is that spells can crit. Apparently wording is that it doubles the dice for the attack. Before modifiers are added. So roll another dice to your damage so far.

Nevermind. I'm adding it into my turn to save time.

Hey everyone. I updated the docs for the campaign into a wiki! Check it out on Obsidian Portal. That is just the link for Tymora's page. I've copied everything else into there as well. Just go to the front page and click around.

Awesome! I'm on Obsidian Portal too! https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/Jabes_plays_RPG

Nice. I have used it for a few games. Even bought membership. Hoping this will make it easier to keep things together better. Make things more coherent. Also I think I've decided gunmage will just be an additional wizard arcane tradition. Seems to make the most sense considering it's pretty much a wizard just with special focus requirements.

1) How much distance to travel to each of the upstairs goblins and the office door?

2) Do the stairs have a railing or banister that might offer cover?

The railings and banisters do not offer great cover because they have posts holding them up, instead of being walls you could duck behind.

To get to the stairs is maybe 30 feet, since you've moved a little ways into the club. To get up the stairs from there is maybe 15 feet. To get back to the office from the top of the stairs is maybe 50 feet.

Huh. All this time I haven't been adding my dex bonus to the damage rolls, is that right? I thought they only applied to the attack!

If using a ranged weapon, firearm, or standard game weapons, add your Dex bonus to whatever the weapons attack damage is. The attack always has that applied as well. For traditional weapons, if you are proficient with it, you add your bonus. To even out the higher damage output of firearms you only add that bonus if you use a bonus action to aim.

Ah, so if I am proficient and I aim first, I can apply the DEX bonus to the damage roll?

Nope, just always add your Dex modifier to the damage roll. Also always add it to your attack rolls with ranged weapon. The only thing the aim bonus action does in this game is allow you to add your proficiency bonus onto your attack roll.

If you aren't proficient with a weapon, you don't even have the aim action available to you at all.

Okay, thanks!

Yeah, it's a little weird. The modern d20 calls it a balance on the higher damage of weapons in the game. I like it because it means you are practiced with aiming and firing the weapon, but much like a real gun firing from the hip won't be as good even if you know how to handle the weapon.

Now that you put it that way it makes a lot of sense. I may never use a gun in character but I like that thought process.

It's why I liked the SMG goblin that was crappy at using an SMG. It just wanted to look cool, didn't really care if it was any good with it. Spray and pray. Also kind of felt in line with goblin nature of chaos. Like the goblin who decided it was a good idea to pull out a grenade inside a club.

Yeah I like the mechanic too even though Krssel is non-proficient. Is certainly gives the characters an additional layer of variety and uniqueness, if tgat makes sense. And yeah I really dig these goblin thugs! I certainly said "ih shit!" out loud when the SMG and the grenade came out!

Does Kessel currently at the foot of the stairs. Does he have line of sight on Brute? Will he have line of sight if he moves up to Mack's position?

Kessel, I assume is still kind of middle of the club on first floor. You could get to where Mack is, or if you dash you could make it upstairs. You could probably still keep eyes on Brute, the bartender, if you get to where Mack is. If you go upstairs it depends on what side you are on to keep line of sight.

The bar is on the first floor on the west wall. If you are on the west side of the upstairs you couldn't see it because it's below you. However if you're upstairs on the east side you could see it from the second floor.

Should I(Preserver) be making any more Death Saving throws? We technically ended on Kessel's turn. The enemies were next and then Preserver again. Despite having three characters get into this predicament on Gamers Plane I've yet to deal with this particular situation. I know the others can attempt Heal skill checks to stabilize me, but after aside from that I'm unsure what to do.

Go ahead and try one more time. Then the rest can try and help out. If you crit the role you'll actually be fully stabilized. But you steal need a healing item or magic to get up in anything short of an hour.

Anyone have anything healery? I don't. I'm all pew pew.

Falryx and I cross posted. Hey, with both of us trying maybe we get a bonus? :-D

Oops, I actually meant CancerMan (sorry!) That was Breecha and Kessel trying to revive Preserver. But now Mack's in on it too (Breecha having obediently gone upstairs) I'm sorry I got mixed up!

Nah. Kessel didn't help much. Lol. Mack stepped in to show you how it's done.

Also if you fail a heal check on someone you can't really try again. It means that in that situation, you just don't have enough insight to even begin triagging the wounds.

Scratch that, it looks like it's considered using an action to do it, so we would need to essentially go in turn order before you can try again. So you can't like immediately try a billion times till it works.

Is it an electronic lock or just a mundane deadbolt or something? If electronic I could probably use one of my abilities on it. If a regular lock then it's a Dex check to pick it open? Can I attempt it without lockpicks? I guess last resort is Breecha breaking it open, tossing in the grenade, and us taking cover.

Somehow I doubt the occupants will let us sit there and pick the lock. Don't forget that they can see us through the mirror.

If it's electronically sealed I can definitely override it. But yeah, I like your idea of punching a hole through the interior wall so we can soften 'em up with Mack's grenade. That'll probably force them to come out guns blazing.

Sorry, I should have specified. The door is sealed on an electrical system, so it can be hacked. Otherwise it's brute force against a heavily reinforced door.

One of these two should get that door open:
The former is preferable of course, as it won't burn a spell slot. In any case, I think we should do the punch-a-hole-insert-grenade first before I open that door.

Sounds like maybe the second though you only can use the door, or door controls as if they were in your hands. Also keep in mind you need line of sight to those controls to cast it. The V component is visual.

The first one sounds only like you could short out the door making it inoperable. The third option is to try and hack it from RAIN. Probably a DC 15 hacking check. It's a strong door, but not incredibly secure digitally.

I thought V component was Verbal? :-)

Double checked, you are indeed right. Carry on. Though your hack was most successful. :)

Oops, sorry, I assumed we were rolling a new initiative order! So just insert my action when my turn comes up. :-)

Also, I wrote Kessel doing all that from the doorway, with the intention of ducking out of sight after. Let me know if this is possible or if I have to move ibto the room to get at Scorch with the Poison Spray (it's only got 10ft range)

Yeah I think you should be able to do that from the doorway and then take cover behind it again. Assuming the other three don't straight murder Scorch. Lol.

Well if they take him out before Kessel can act then those spells are for Claw instead. :-D

Are warforged immune to fire as well?

I don't believe so. I can check.

It looks like no. Maybe newer models were made to hold up to high temperatures, but not Breecha or Preserver.

No, Warforged are awesom, but they are not immune to any energy types, nor do they have any particular resistances. Magic items that provide those effects would make sense though, especially for BR33CH

They are immune to disease.

Probably poison too :-D

Right but that's not an energy type.

True. Also Kessel, I haven't forgotten you, just waiting for your turn. :)

Scorch has to go down, or have some bad rolls. Preserver unconscious, Breecha down to 4 HP. Hope Mack and Kessel can carry the two of us out!

Not to mention the office is becoming more and more on fire. On the plus side Claw can't seem to get his act together.

well.. if claw goes down, we can hi-tail it out. maybe.

True. He is the mark. The mission was to eliminate him.

But if a delay on enemy posts till this evening probably. I think you all still got this.

Claw might be the target, but Scorch is one tough cookie. Something tells me that we might be better off if we can eliminate both of them.

Sigh. RNG not cooperating. 5,1 on 2d8. Dismal.

Think the DC for me is 15.

Your character sheet lists 13 as your spell save DC. I used that.

RNG is working nicely for the bad guys!

Ah right. Base of 8, not 10. 13 is correct.

Wondered when we were going to get scoldings from "mother."

With how you decided the full out guns out frontal assault it was going to happen eventually.

How much would Robot Repair Kits and Healing Kits/Medpacs cost? I figure we're going to need a stockpile.

Amen.

Time to go a potion-hunting. ;)

I'm thinking about multi-classing into Cleric PDQ as well.

Woot! Good thing I have proficiency with Wargforged Repair Kit! But maybe I should've remembered to bring one, eh? :-D

I'll get a cost breakdown, as of now it should cost about what a healers kit does. I may split them into two different items for the team. Maybe still keeping medical checks as the standard repair stat for trying to stabalize.

Well, thanks to that nat. 1 I'm 2&2. If I roll one more time it will be decided.

Maybe you have a Medpak Ex Machina, too!

I'll definitely say, anyone who is alive at the end of this certainly earned their second level. :)

Can Breecha and Preserver get out under their own power?

...and good point about the guns. It wouldn't occur to Mack to pick one up though. I mean.. "Guns? That's your super-power?"

I'll say they give enough motor skill to allow a user to move them if need be, even powered down. A feature designed to try and quickly evac them from warzones or dire situations. This essentially puts them within the normal weight limits of dragging or moving a creature. Something like a halfling probably wouldn't be able to budge them, but for you and Kessel, it's sort of like trying to move a very drunk unconscious friend out to your car.

Dang it, I totally forgot that fighters have Second Wind. I could have used that to heal myself at some point before getting reduced to 0.

You'll remember for next time.

Well played, guys! Got pretty intense there. So much that I failed to keep the soundtrack going haha!

Level 2 woot woot! How are we doing HP? Rolling or average?

I rolled. In hindsight, I should have taken the suggested number, but oh well.

You can roll or average, whichever you choose. Rolling always has a chance for better numbers, but the RNG gods have not been favoring you lately.

Invocations! Yassss! You got any tech-flavored homebrew invocations, PhantomNimbus? :-D

Let me look into it. :)

You speak in understatement.

There is the one that came with the Modern Magic Unearthed Arcana. I just spun up another. Also tried to clarify the pact weapon feature a bit, it's pretty much the standard Pact Weapon ability that Warlocks have, but it works for guns now.

Honestly, if anyone in the party has any suggestions for additional invocations, or wizard spells, or whatever, let me know. I'll at least consider most things as long as they don't destroy game balance.

Okay, not sure if you plan to do any gunslinging, but I think I just added two awesome invocations.

Got a power outage here at home, so will hold off on changes to my character sheet for Level 2 til tomorrow (minus hp which I've already done).

No problem.

Heads up. Once we decide to roll out of here, one way or another. I will start up the next chapter thread. Hoping to keep this forum relatively organized. Hopefully.

Jabes, you may want to check out the new added bonus invocation to the Warlock.

San Waterdeep - Warlock

Added the ability for the warlock to hit a wild magic surge, like a sorcerer, but it rolls off the 10000 surges list floating around online. :)

Cool! I don't get a Pact til Level 3 though, and I haven't decided if I'm doing Blade or Tome. :-) Blade does seem fun though, since modern rules allow the pact weapon to be a firearm.

I'll see if I can do up some Non-Pact invocations soon. Again, open to suggestions.

No rush! :-) I can just take PHB ones for now. Or if you'll allow, I'll juat leave the 2nd Invocation slot empty for now (I've already filled one with Agonizing Blast)

Think I may head abjuration -- feels like we have a lot of hitting power, and we could use some defense...

Feel free to discuss more plans in or out of character during a brief intermission while I get the next chapter setup. It will be starting as you are leaving your safe house. I'll give you leeway to RP how you decided to go.

Party: Breecha will bring all weapons for this trip. However, I'm assuming that the docks won't be a place for people to walk around armed to the teeth, so at most I'd probably bring the pistol and mace when we actually go outside of the van to meet Daemon. Breecha's shield shouldn't look out of place if it's strapped or otherwise attached to his back, but a double-barreled shotgun definitely will.

DM: Do we have ammunition to reload and more medkits to bring along, or is that what we're buying at the docks? Just making sure I update the character sheet accordingly.

I know there are 8 more uses on he warforged repair kit so Kessel is bringing that. If Tymora's got any more of those &/or some stim packs lying around then it might be good to bring those too.

Like last time, we're still equipped with our standard communications, including a direct line to Tymora and Phantom.Nimbus (the A.I.) right?

As far as the SMGs and Shotgun, you don't have extra ammo as you just picked those up. Your pistols I'm sure you got whatever a standard pack of ammo is to start. Reload number on weapons is how many shots you can fire before you need a reload.

You don't seem to have stimpacks, which is part of what you are going to pick up. More ammo would probably be good too. This Daemon guy is supposed to have a deal for you so prices may vary from the wiki tables.

Tymora also has two healers kits and another repair kit. You can dole those out how you want. They are just for stabilization. You will also have the standard com devices you've had, and direct lines to either people/AIs.

Breecha will forgo using the SMG. He's a STR-based fighter (for now) so dedicating two hands to it doesn't seem efficient. Might not hurt to bring it along anyway.

That said, what DOES seem efficient is the burst-fire mode. Seems it's easier to force the target to make a DEX save than it is to make an attack roll. Of course, we'd need ammo for it.

Also if my counts are right you have about 18 SMG bullets total. And one shotgun shell.

Also the burst fire eats up 10 bullets from a clip. On the small SMGs that you picked up that's half of the clip.

Kessel relies more on his spells but none of those have area of effect so yeah an SMG might make sense. He doesn't have proficiency with firearms though.

Luckily burst fire has little to do with proficiency. It just is a Dex save for the enemies. The downside is if you had to regular fire it you can't aim to get your proficiency bonus on the attack roll.

Just be aware. When you burst fire, ALL creatures in the radius need to save. Not just enemies.

SMGs are probably good for Kessel as a backup weapon. It's basically spray-n-pray, and the onus is on the target to make the save.

Speaking of which, would we house-rule sawed-off shotguns with a similar area-effect? I equipped Breecha with a shotgun thinking that it would be good to soften up the enemies in the first round, then switch to shield and pistol to take out specific targets. Now that I've seen burst-fire in action, maybe a one-handed sawed-off shotgun is a good option.

Well in Kessel's case maybe a burst or two would be enough in situations where his more focused nature of his combat spells aren't optimal.

Because burst fire doesn't rely on proficiency it's better than an automatic pistol. Of course, an SMG is terribly conspicuous! :-D

So far no shotguns have a bust fire option, just a shorter range. Although if you hit they do quite a bit of damage.

New forum is up. Enjoy.

I was just thinking that a sawed-off shotgun is (supposedly) meant to spread the pellets into a shorter and wider blast. So while it's not exactly burst-fire, the concept is similar in that you're mostly pointing the gun in the direction of the enemy and saturating that zone with a single cloud of damage.

Let me play with the idea a bit. I just want to make sure it doesn't get to OP to have a shotgun that can also do an area effect damage. It may mean an extremely reduced range or something. Hmmm...

Indeed, most sawed-offs sacrifice range for close-quarters effectiveness (at least, that's what Hollywood says; I've never fired a sawed-off shotgun). Outdoors, it's probably the worst weapon. Inside confined spaces, potentially better. I might propose a range of 20/30 or 20/40 for a standard shotgun shell fired from a sawed-off, and any target hit by the pellets within the disadvantaged range actually take half-damage (resist for none) to represent the pellets spreading too far by that point.

Solid slugs, on the other hand, might have a range of 20/70, to represent the inaccuracy of the shortened barrel on the round, but it's still a solid bullet that can travel.

That actually sounds like a good compromise. Limited range for a blast effect. I'll probably add that to the weapons table soon.

Unrelated question. How do we feel if I have a thread going for your groups shared resources? Like what your safehouse has available to you. Then when you get paid for jobs and stuff it will just go into the groups shared account, if you get caches of ammo and stuff you store them at the warehouse, and just say how much you bring out to missions or if you are leaving the safehouse.

Having a dedicated inventory thread would be nice, actually.

I want to say in d20 Modern (on which the concepts of the Modern Magic articles were inspired by) there was an option for shotgun ammo to come in slug form or shot form. Slug form was standard one target big damage, but the shot used a Reflex Save, so basically it worked like the Burning Hands spell. The shot filled the area and damage was decided on whether the target's Saving Throw was successful. Rather than an All-or-Half, or an All-or-None result though, I would point out the rules in 13th Age. Perhaps for a spreading shot we could use Level (or Hit Dice) as the amount of damage on a failed save? So on spread attacks, something always grazes the target. Roll for damage every time, but if the target successfully dodges they take our level in damage (2 damage at the time of this posting) or the Hit Dice of the monster firing the shot. Armor with Ballistic DR would still apply though, I think.

I also have a question I need answered for my character. According to the printed rules a druid needs to have seen an animal before it can turn into it with Wild Shape. How should I interpret this in a game where we basically have access to the internet? Does a YouTube video count or do I need to take a trip to the Waterdeep Zoo? Specifically for battle reasons I have researched my two most useful battle forms. The Brown Bear and the Dire Wolf are both options for Preserver to change into because I am going with Circle of the Moon. I guess I'm asking if I have seen these animals before. I added the stats Preserver would have to the notes on my sheet. Here is a direct link.

My restrictions are CR 1 and no swim or fly speed. I figure the basic list of house cat, dog, rat, spider(or non flying insect), rodents like squirrels and rabbits are all good, but didn't know how much to assume. So what any suggestions on how to handle this class feature would be helpful.

I would say your character should have access to either bear or dire wolf forms. I would say there should be something in seeing the actual animals, but given the progression in this world there is no doubt a zoo somewhere in this metropolis. No doubt they have things like that, boars, birds, etc. That seems reasonable. Now something like a blink spider or something is going to be a much more rare creature not really around near the city just yet. Plus a zoo would have a hard time containing things within other planes of existance.

I think you would need line of sight because the ability to interact with things through technology as though you were there is actually an ability of the Technomancers later on I think? Or maybe Warlocks. One of them gets the ability to cast through visual or audio technology as though they were there.

I agree that making real world contact, at least visually. My theory on Preserver's soul/animating force is a nature spirit of some sort. So some of the "Druid stuff" has to have a hold on him, he isn't a technomancer. Another restriction I forgot about was that I am limited to 'beast' creatures, so phase spiders and stuff are not an option. Eventually as the Druid levels they can turn into plants and elementals, but 'monstrosity' type creatures are not on the list.

Okay, cool, makes sense.

LOL! I love it!

I hope that was from your personal funds, we need the 300 we made for this pick up. ;)

Yes, from my personal funds LOL!

Lol, that would be hilarious? You got my money? Well we have most of it. Your guard has the last 5.

*bump* :-D

Nimbus said he was slammed IRL lately -- so I think he knows we're looming but, hopefully he's only on a brief hiatus!

Ah. Well no worries then! :-) I bet everyone's going a little crazy because of the holidays! :-D

Yeah, crap, I missed two of my games, I thought I posted in them all. I'm just on temporary haiatus until after the 25th. This month has been crazy. I fully intend on continuing the game, no worries on that part. Just need a bit of time off, then we will get right back on this meeting.

Take the time you need. I'm not goin' anywhere. :)

Alright, everyone. I'm going to be spinning back up my games. Hope everyone had good whatever holidays you all may celebrate in December. Excited to get things going again.

Woot woot!

I'll nab a stim from the stash if possible. Would be good to have it on hand to use one someone (including myself) if need be.

Awesome, go ahead and add it to your sheet and I'll update the stash.

I think Preserver needs a Stim on hand as well, and one of the incendiary grenades.

I'll need a stim or two, and however many rounds of SMG ammo go into a clip. I wish there were warforged repair kits available as well.

Removing from stash:

3 stims (1 foolsmask, 2 Jabes)
1 Incendiary Grenade (1 foolsmask)
20 smg ammo (Jabes)

There are 20 shots in a 'clip' for the light SMGs. You can fire 20 shots before a reload, also remember using the burst fire technique eats up 10 smg ammo.

2nd pass on those perimeter cameras also failed. And how about that 1 on the internal security hack, eh? :-D

I updated my post for your...spirited...rolling. Your choices are fight or flight the system scan at this point. Either way you are going to take a tiny bit of psychic damage when you disconnect from the system.

So disaster has been averted for now but Kessel still doesn't control internal security. Can he make another run at that system now or later?

He's still down to 1RP, yeah? Is there a way to regain RP?

P.S. This is fun! :-)

You can make another run at the system for sure. You are still down to 1 RP. I am making an item that may allow you to regain RP, but I can't think of a normal way aside from time, so maybe 1 hour regains 1 RP? I assume it would be time for your system to reestablish your neural connection to the RAIN system and stabilize it.

I snorted a bit with Gnomgle Maps. That's canon now.

I figured it'd be the Gnomes who built a solid search engine in the RAIN.

It ended up replacing QuestMap.com.

Brilliant! :-D

So...I just book it and someone pushes the button?

You set the device and have roughly a minute to escape. Kessel can hit the button whenever he chooses to spin up that gun.

I may need you to make an athletics or acrobatics check to get out hopefully unscathed.

I now have to know, what is the name of the Noodle house?

oh... i'm going to have to think about that one.

While I inwardly groan at my own suggestion, the "Pho King County Noodle House."

well i'd implied that a kobold ran it.. so perhaps it'd be less clever and more spartan a name.

Ah... "Flumph's Floating Noodles" (cuz they're in soup, you see)

Perfect. Totally canon now.

Sorry for delay, I'll probably have new post up on monday

Hey, remind me, did we ever choose your hideouts location? Here are the Waterdeep Wards.



For reference Daemon and the club you hit were in the Docks Ward. The warehouse you blew up was in the heart of the Southern Ward. The noodle shop was in the Trade Ward, with most of the shops. The Castle Ward is the heart of the city and business center. The Sea Ward is a very night life part of town. Clubs (the reputable ones. Or at least those that do a better job of looking so) and restaurants. The northern Ward is the houses of higher paid executives and the upper class who choose to avoid the condos of the Castle Ward.

A specific location wasn't pinned down, but based on the discussion here I'd say Dock Ward.

Yeah Docks or Southern seems most likely since the powers of the city focus less on things standing out there. They are already the seedier parts of town.

Holy crap, guys, I didn't realize everyone's been waiting on me! Totally lost the thread here!

Ok, I guess I should level up to 3. On it!

Mostly just waiting On a group concensous of what to do I think.

I suggested medpak shopping, maybe look into upgraded weapons and armor. Then take one of those sidejobs.

I second this. I'll have Kessel come out of his hacker lair as soon as I'm done leveling. Right now he's jacked into the Matrix. :-D

Kessel is going Pact of the Tome. I couldn't think of a technological word to replace "Tome" hehe! I guess his Book of Shadows will be in the form of some sort of datapad or implant. Now I gotta pick spells. I realized that my 2 Eldritch Invocation slots are still empty. I'm not absolutely sure but I think I purposely left them empty in the hopes of some homebrew technomancy invocations from PhantomNimbus :-D

I'll check out the invocations already existing and see if anything comes to mind.

Sorry -- I need to level up and look into things. had hoped to do so this week, but work has been killing me between travel and meetings. I spent 8-5 on the phone today.

I'm good with the shopping first, then sidejobs second.

how do you want to handle shopping phantom? shall we get in the van and trundle about at risk of a random encounter? :)

No random encounter, but I may spin up a new forum. I like to split it based on what I could feasibly see as an arc or episode or whatever. Shopping isn't JUST shopping in this campaign. Even a shopping trip can have depth. :)

I found our discussion on invocations from before, and the link to tech warlock content on your Obsidian Portal page. Great stuff (and I particularly like the Wild Magic Surge!), but limited to Blade Pact so Kessel can't use 'em (he's going Pact of the Tome). To be honest I'd be happy just sticking with PHB stuff but given the flavor of our game, any technomancy stuff would just make it that more fun. :-)

Pact of the Tome. The Book of Shadows. So I'm thinking a black, quadruple-encryption datapad, or a brain implant.


Spells. I need 3 cantrips. I haven't played many spellcasters so am not very familiar with spells. Any suggestions for stuff that might be a good fit? Taking Vicious Mockery for sure!

Find Vehicle from UA Modern Magic looks like a modernized version of Find Steed. But a steed can act independently, and communicate telepathically with its master. So would it be possible an A.I. motorcyle equipped with guns? Haha!

For spells, I'm personally partial to having at least 1 damage cantrip with the rest as utilitarian. Message, Mending, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Light, Spare the Dying, and Move Earth (from Elemental Evil) are usually up there on my list of preferences.

I assume an AI controlled motorcycle or a light cycle type thing is cool, though I don't think the vehicle comes equipped with guns. Maybe you could get the thing modded at some point. :)

For now just stick with the PHB Pact of the Tome stuff and I'll look into it if I ever get some free time. Maybe I can spice that stuff up a bit for techromantic stuff.

Work for me. Thanks! I'll have Kessel leveled up by tonight.

I've leveled up my HP and still need to pick a couple level 2 spells.

Just a couple more questions, then Kessel will be ready. In choosing spells I'm ignoring what's optimal and just going for what I think would be cool and fun.

So it looks like I can learn both Find Vehicle and Find Familiar (the latter as a ritual). So I'll have my light cycle and a...nano drone familiar, maybe? Any better ideas for a modern familiar? Of course, owls and crows still exist but I imagine my patron (Ghost in the Machine) would drop me something more appropriate.


Like this.

Yes, again, to stay close to standard stats your familiar will be similar to the choices of a standard familiar. A crow becomes a small surveillance drone. A spider could become a small scouting walker droid capable of scaling surfaces. It will pretty much just be a cosmetic change on an existing creature. Or you could also opt for the creature itself. Totally up to you. A technomancer with a regular little ferret seems like some anime ready to be written.

Totally down with this! I love doing reskins.

Ok, so Kessel has joined everyone in the kitchen. I'm sorry I kept everyone waiting! I had Kessel all set up a few minutes ago but I am now suddenly tempted to change it all and go Chain Pact. Don't worry, if I do change it'll only take me a few minutes. It's all dependent on the answer to this question:

If Kessel goes Chain Pact can his drone familiar can the drone's stats be those of an imp, quasit or pseudodragon?

EDIT: Nah, let's not complicate things. I'll stick to Pact of the Tome. It's more true to character - as a hacker Kessel is addicted to information. It's his meth! The familiar will have owl stats. Both the drone and the light cycle are currently being 3D-printed by Jarvis Phanton.Nimbus (the A.I.)

Are you looking for more explicit action sir?

Oh, no sorry. Didn't realize the resolution had happened. I'm actually going to setup a new forum as this is a new sort of "scene". I should have it up this afternoon.

Coolio. Thanks!

More like this evening. Crazy day at work.

No rush -- and it looks like we lost foolsmask. :/

I was hoping he was just on a hiatus. I was going to let him sit out the next "section". I'm trying to do sort of mission based so we can have discreet sort of adventures without anyone getting too lost. But it ties into a bigger plot I have.

sounds good. hopefully he'll be back!

If Breecha had to choose, he'd opt for IDs or license-to-carry for the fleshies since he himself could be passed off as property. Do try to haggle this lizardman down, though. :)

Oh man, look at Kessel go! Mister Persuasive!

Lol, had that actually been high enough he would have counter offered, but at this point you pretty much just insulted him. It was a hell of a good try though.

Is this alley wide enough for my bike? What about the van?

You could bring the bike into it, but the turns down the alley way wouldn't allow you enough maneuverability, so you wouldn't be able to make it down to the end of the alley where the scene you have seen is unfolding. Once you are in that dead-end, it seems to be a small clearing maybe 20ft by 20ft, surrounded by brick buildings. This seems to be the backs of all the buildings as you see utility meters and stuff back here.

I could always digitize the bike at the turns and re-form the bike after each turn. But I wouldn't want to arrive before the others so I guess we're all hoofing it. :-)

Is it possible to delay an action to act only if it looks like redfeather is going to attack? If he's going to flee I have no need to plug him with a firebolt or other item, but if he's gunna get fussy at someone I'd like to plug him first.

Yes. You can ready your action on your turn. Essentially you set a trigger for what you want to trigger your action. You choose the action you want to do when that trigger is complete.

Then if that trigger happens between the rounds you use your reaction to act as soon as that trigger has finished.

If you are doing this with spells you actually cast the spell on your turn, hold it's energy, and use your reaction to release the energy. Of course you have to maintain concentration on the spell to hold it in this way and there is the possibility if you are attacked and lose your concentration before the trigger happens, you may lose the spell.

A few notable things:
-- Readying something takes your action on your turn
-- When you react to the trigger you react AFTER the trigger has completed
-- You also will use your reaction (which you only get one of per round) to use that held action
-- If you are doing this with a spell it must have a casting time of 1 action, and you must concentrate to keep it held.
-- If you do this with a spell you must successfully cast the spell first, then it is considered "held" by you.

Ditto.

I'm good with adding a new 4th. 3 people is a little light for an adventure team.

I'll post my vote for a new player here and remove my post in the game thread.

I figured a new player would be good too, so I opened the game up and posted a recruiting thing. We will see if it draws interest. If not during this mission during another we could bring a new person in. That's the nice thing about it being mission based in a sense. (Though there is a larger plot afoot).

Might just have to press on with an NPC for this mission. I'm still actively recruiting.

Hello, guys. I'm the new player.
Is there a party role that's seriously missed from the team?

Heya greenvoid!

I think we can make do with anything you might want to play. we've got a couple wizard-like folks and a fighter right now, I think. So lots of opportunity to be something different.

Yeah, just play anything you will have fun with. :-) Right now we have:
Breecha, a warforged fighter
Kessel Nor, a technomancer warlock
Mack Winchester, a gunmage, our group's leader
Tymora (NPC), our group's "mom" handler
Phantom.Nimbus, (NPC) our HQ A.I. helper

Hey greenvoid, sorry I didn't hop on sooner to intro you. Weekends are a little crazy for me usually.

At this point it's two casters and a fighter I think. We had another Druid bot but the player went AWOL. Still in the game in case he comes back. Feel free to use anything you want, even all unearthed arcana stuff is good. Just assume things are more modernized. Warforged are out main change as now they are basically androids. Preserver the Druid was much more human like, Breecha is a utilitarian type bot. Very methodical and...not very charismatic. Lol.

I searched for Unearthed Arcana, and found THIS among the links. :)

I was thinking about someone who can use technology but not really tinker with it, a kind user-only-rigger. Any use of class abilities I will describe as cybernetics in use.

I have no idea, however, about what class could do it. I'll read some more on the world at OP and the other links, but if any of you have suggestions / ideas, don't hold back.

You can feel free to RP that to your hearts content. It certainly would make an interesting character who uses more out of the box equipment instead of getting heavy into modding a rig or anything.

Also as far as character creation I'm going to have you have a previous knowledge of someone else in San Waterdeep, one of the members of the existing crew. They know they will need another member to fill the gap in their team, so I just asked if any of them knew someone.

However you want to work a backstory into that fact would be great. You don't even necessarily have to like the crew, just agree to do the job.

Just read that and it was pretty funny. Lol. Hope you never run into lava in this game. Although it would probably be cyber lava.

Might be difficult to work in a connection with Breech-a, as he is essentially ex-military property.

Did you already pick a class, greenvoid? For some reason, I think of Bard, but not in a musical sense. I mean more of the jack-of-all-trades type, someone who's picked up skills from all over. Maybe from the College of Lore, where "Lore" has changed to mean technology of all forms, and you use whatever bits and pieces you've collected to initiate your class abilities.

Your 'instrument' could be your hacking rig. I actually kind of like the idea of that conversion. Someone who has a way with the tools at his disposal, without all the in depth training something like a wizard would have to go through.

Well Greenvoid IF you're playing a hacker then Kessel could be your contact. In fact you could be The Guy (I know a guy who knows a guy).

Yeah, this sounds cool. I simply dismissed the bard because I didn't like the trubadour feeling, but seeing him as a rave fan in discos, remixing for the audience and trance-dancing to rave is fun. Might even describe some spells as rave party subconscious suggestions transmitted via music effects.

And most things will remain cybernetic effects for fluff. Maybe via sound effects, too, when it's plausible.

Is it OK if he's a distant cousin of Kessel's?
Another half-elf in deck...

Yeah, that all makes total sense, the powers and the relationship. No doubt bards have become more club kid than traveling minstrel in the future.

What level should he be?

You can start at 3 with everyone else.

Oh great! Another kid with a questionable taste in music... just what Mack needs.

"I'm going to put in this 8-track of Orchestral High Elven Favorites if you guys don't cut down on that be-boop-be-bop racket!"

I could see a Bard-type character using a datapad filled with Apps that did spell-like abilities.

Waiting for greenvoid to introduce his character OOC before Kessel says anything in-character. :-)

Yes, I think it would be good to wait for that.

sounds good. :) I'm not in a rush and happy to have a fourth again.

not that you two are bad or anything. ;)

Sorry, these few days have been crazy. Today afternoon/evening I'll have time for more detailed chargen, will post when done.

Don't sweat it! PbP can be a little slower with no harm.

That's the true beauty of it.

Happy birthday to me, but happy birthday to YOU as well. Everyone gets a shiny new level! I think that puts everyone at 4! Even you greenvoid. Your character will come in at 4 instead of 3.

Happy anniversary of birth!

I think I will get the Feat for Optical Enhancements, as it seems appropriate for a robot. However, I have a question about the benefit "Add 20 feet to any ranged weapon’s disadvantage distance." Does that mean I increase the total disadvantage range by 20? For example, an automatic pistol has range 50/150. With Optical Enhancements, that range becomes 50/170, not 70/150?

I think I'm going to houserule that it adds 20 to both distances. So your total range extends out, and so does your range for not having disadvantage.

Happy Birthday, everyone!

I'll do some research and hunt around for what I wanna do. :)

looks like I get an ability score improvement, can cast another 2nd level spell and get 2 new spells for my spell book...

Man...just think...that focus upgrade would be so nice right now.

Raised Kessel's CHA and CON 1 point. Adjusted HP. Now I get to pick 1 new cantrip and 1 new spell. :-) Happy Birthday!

yes, the focus upgrade would be awesome -- but Mack understands the value of saving for a rainy day.

Yay, I have a working computer again.

Awesome, just let us know when you are ready to go.

Edited my post to better describe Corril.

Good for me, team to go!

I suppose I'll join after the shopping trip?

Perfect, I'm about to transition to the new chapter. We will join the group as they are heading out for the mission that night. Would you want to drive there, take some sort of Uber service? How would your character get around town normally?

Motorcycle seems solid for the character. You may end up riding along side the van for the escort mission, just so you are aware. Sounds like an action movie in the making. :)

I already love that scene...

PhantomNimbus, could you set the game thread to offer posting as a character by default?
The way it is now we have to either go Advanced (which clears everything typed so far) or edit the post later. I think this is possible because in another game that's how it works.

Actually that is not controllable by me. That may have been put in by Keleth. He was working on a bug centered around that feature that he said he was going to push, so I'm wondering if there was an issue with the push.

As it stands clicking advance should keep whatever message you post, but it won't remember the player you selected to post as, that is the bug.

Outside of that there isn't a way I can set the default posting user for a player.

San Waterdeep game forum bottom

Talos game forum bottom

That...seems like some sort of bug. There is no option in a forum I can use to disable that. At least not that I'm aware of. I'll make a post in the bug forum about it. Maybe Keleth has some insight.

Ah, figured something out. I had never actually approved your character sheet into the game. You had submitted it but I never hit approve. You should be able to post in character now.

Did you mention that you were able to post in character without actually having an accepted character sheet? I think that actually might be a real bug that I never noticed.

Yep, that's it, now I have the same drop-down menu automatically.
No, because I didn't know my character hadn't been approved.

Well I mean I didn't have the character approved, but you've posted as the character a few times already. I think that is a bug Keleth needs to look into. You shouldn't be able to post as a character until the GM has accepted them into the game.

That is why the drop down was missing on your posting section.

I'm thinking about dropping into RAIN to scout out and possibly take control of traffic lights along possible routes. I don't suppose I can do that while riding my bike. Is there still space in the back of the van? Of course I could just send OWL ahead. We would have eyes in the sky but no control over city infrastructure and law enforcement.

You could sit in the front seat with Mack.

Mack pats the seat next to him. "It'll be fine! I swear!"

LOL! Well, Kessel is also reluctant to leave his rookie cousin riding alone out there.

I'll let you all decide where you want to be in or on this motorcade once things get going.

Before in the wiki I had mentioned three levels of interaction with RAIN. One is using a console or device externally. Like a computer terminal or datapad.

Another is a HUD form. This overlays it into a HUD if you want. The last is full injection into the computer system. I think you could do the first while driving, the second HUD version may disadvantage you with dexterity or coordination tasks if it seems fair given the current situation.

How does that sound to everyone?

Makes sense. I'd imagine, that much like using a console while driving, it's not easy to do anything complex if you're multi-tasking.

Yeah that makes total sense. Now if only Kessel's magic bike had autopilot... LOL!

OK for me. Corril's gonna ride with the first option, and only check in even to the HUD when I explicitly say so.

Are we on the move already? If we're still in the warehouse and haven't rolled out then Kessel can go full injection into RAIN to answer Mack's question

As far as I knew it you were still prepping your convoy and getting ready to go but hadn't gone yet.

Heads up folks -- Phantom is on the demo crew for FFG for Gencon, so he's been doing a lot of prep for that. That means that we're likely to be in slow-mo/pause here 'til after Gencon. :)

Cool. I was on a beach-and-boardgame holiday for 4 days, came back on Sunday.

It's cool. Besides being busy with work, I am running a game for the first time ever! Three decades of gaming, I've always been a player!

Crazy! Are you having fun?

Yeah, it's been a blast so far! :-D

I'm back everyone. I will be spinning all my games back up in the next few days. This is among the top of the stack. You guys got some cargo that needs moving.

Jabes, what game are you running? I ran a 4 hour session of Edge of Empire for FFG at the con and it was great. Next year if I demo again I might get to run more RPGs instead of having to be in the vendor hall demoing so much. It was super fun but man it is exhausting.

Welcome back, PhantomNimbus! I'm glad you had fun at GenCon. I heard you and Keleth got to hang out. :-)

I got 3 people from my RL group to sign up to GP and play in a Dungeon World game. It's their first time with DW and first time with PbP. I'm a first time GM so there's been a learning curve all around, but it's been fun!

Kessel is looking forward to getting this cargo on the road! :-)

That's awesome. Love the Dungeon World system. It's really unique. Great for new people too.

Traveling on work tomorrow. Next update from me may be Friday am.

Hey there -- had a couple busy days getting ready to fly to Hawaii for some vacation. I'm on holiday from 8/21 - 8/26. That said, I will have my iPad with me, so you probably will get some updates, just at weirder times since I'll be living 3 hours in the past.

The way I picture it: On their bikes on either side of the team's van. Kessel tried to take out the street-car on his side but missed with his eldritch blast.

Alright, Kessel will be on the right side, and Corril will have the left, though he probably had to move as well to avoid the trailer Mack tried to run the other van into.

Oh, I forgot: Hex imposes disadvantage on all checks made with the ability chosen by the warlock. Kessel chooses DEX.

Makes sense. Does that require a hit to affect, or is that no matter what?

No matter what. :-D

Good to know.

I can't put together a coherent response for another few days. Things are crazy. Sorry guys.

S'ok by me. Slow and steady wins the race. That's the joy of pbp.

Hello people. I'm preparing to move abroad, I hoped I can have some time after other family affairs, but sometimes I can't even tell what day it is, it's so busy nowadays. I'm moving next Saturday, and after that I'll settle in.

Don't count on me till October, when I'll come back and tell you if I have time and energy to join back.

:( I like the game, all the participants and PCs, but I overestimated my energy.

See you in October.
Have fun!

Good look with the move, Greenvoid! :-)

Good luck with the move. This is a fun game and we can give you the time 'til next month to sort things out, I bet. :)

Travelling Tue - Thu of this week. tue / wed are all day meetings + dinner with colleagues. very low chance of posting. Thu is meetings, field day and plane travel, so.. ditto. :)

sorry for the delay. I /might/ post, but don't bet on it.

This game is still on, right? Please say yes, because it's one of my favorites!

Yeah, still here, sorry, this last week has been rough. I'll have an update soon, promise.

No worries, man. I asked that question before I knew you were dealing with RL stuff. How are the kids? Much better now, I hope?

Yeah, everyone's on the mend. I'm not looking forward to more illnesses down the line. Winter is coming.

http://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/1260/?p=149628#p149628

no worries!

Uhhh, I don't like saying this, but I don't feel connected to the game any more, it's been too long for me.
Have fun guys, when you continue, but I'll leave now.

Sorry guys, I'm going to have to take a GP hiatus. More info here: http://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/1260/?p=162293#p162293

Ok, leaving this game for now, but please do let me know if it should continue! Thanks!

Also going to leave to tidy up my games -- but I'd be excited to get it back together again! So don't hesitate to ping me if you get back, Phantom!