OOC Chat Thread

You know what to do here, don't you?

So, go for it!!

Talk to other real people, like a real person!

;)

Thanks for allowing me to join the game. I'm looking forward to playing.

Hello. I am a real person. Hello other real people.

I'm also a horse person in real life and would love to play a character that has a deep bond with their horse, so I'd like to play a Rider of Rohan if possible. I am thinking on the Emissary of your People background and the Slayer class (because it has the Rider specialty, yay!). Hope that's fine with everyone.

Hello, I'm a Brit, but will be in GMT-5 for a few weeks starting Sunday. I'll be living out of a suitcase so apologies if I'm a bit quiet.

Appreciate the heads up, Ned!

Greetings one and all,
I just joined the game. I look forward to playing with you all. I'm in SW Oregon, on the West Coast of the U.S., GMT-8.

Hiya everybody! Looks like everyone has some nice character ideas, I'll get something up soon. I'm reading through the forum and book still.

I'm in GMT-6 and shamelessly blame any irregular posting on a toddler.

Hey all, I too am a real person. Hope you're all well.

I'm in UK so at GMT.

Had copied my Rohan Slayer in from the previous game that didn't really get off the ground but having a think about changing it.
Always keen to try new things!

Smiles. Just started, but lack materials.

good news everyone i got the bad luck out of the dice

Helloa, friends! I've just been accepted to the game - thanknyou Em. Looking forward to playing - just catching up on my reading, and I've got a Treasure Hunter in the works to supplement the current group.

My instinct is to go Hobbit, but I thought I'd try to get a hold of the additional resource books before I pull the trigger on that. (Is there a Link around here somewhere?)

There was a smokin' deal on Humble Bundle but it's expired now.

I think now you're either looking at Cubicle 7's website, or DTRPG, or other 3rd party vendors.

Guys, we can stop. Pack it up. This game is cursed. CURSED! These dice have the Shadow in them, there can be no doubt. All we can do now is set fire to it all!

Heh, I rolled a 2 on my pick pocket roll, so I'm not able to disagree with you here ...

*Lights the fire*

When you're playing on pbp/rolling digitally, does that mean you gotta burn the device that you're using? ;P

In all seriousness though, that was some horrid luck Khulod. Sorry.

Ah yes, the simpler the dice algorithm, the lessor randomization can be simulated, the greater the chances for poop rolls than real life dice.

But hey, lite it up! But keep the charcoal - this is AiME after all. ;D

How do I see the character sheets of those in the party? I can see mine through some tortuous route via my settings, but the links from this thread and the game page just seem to go to user accounts.

Good question!

People have to make their character sheets viewable by others, via the "Characters" tab up top. And if/when they've done that, then you can just click on their character's Avatar to go directly to the character sheet.

I do prefer if ppl do share their character sheets, but I don't require it (I can always see them).

Heads up, I don't know what time I'll have for this over the next week. Don't wait for me 🙂

Appreciate the heads up, TNed!

Does anyone wanna give me a quick TLDR:?
I see your at the beginnings of some festival and a pony is going nuts?

We're likely very near the end of the encounter, otherwise I'd bring you in, but basically this is all just a "meet-cute". So don't be too worried about understanding....

But, yea, everyone is/has been at a Festival thrown by King Bard to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the Battle of the 5 Armies and death of Smaug.

The big event capping off the end of this day was a parade, featuring an oliphaunt.

Everyone was at the parade, certain people started noticing certain things going wrong.

Now they're trying to prevent a tragedy from happening.

That's it.

Check.

Hey gang, how's it goin'?

I know it's early in the game and ppl may not have a feel for everything/anything yet. But I just want to reinforce how I'm really yearning for collaborative storytellers here. Please help me bring the world of Tolkien and our particular story to life by posting beyond when it's time to roll the dice.

What does your PC think of the times, and/or the situation they've just been through? Where's your PC staying in Laketown (you won't be expected to pay for it, yet)? Doesn't have to be long, just something to help paint the ongoing picture.

I'm gonna keep things moving in the story thread, but please continue to interact with the gameworld and with each other.

Thanks!

bhwhahahaa

Could we write/copy descriptive stuff in another thread? It'd be easier to find it then if I want to check what others are saying about their chars & backstory so I can build on it.

Sounds like a good idea, yeah. I was going to put a brief bio and physical description on my character sheet but still not sure how to make it open for everyone to see.

I like it! I will open up the IC Resource thread for posting. I believe that would be the most appropriate place for it?

So have I had the worst rolls yet or what?

Ok Em, help me out here. We need to purchase a Pony. I don't know what the bigger wrench in my plans was, this COVID-19 or the friggin' pony, but I have 3 Silver in contributions from other player characters (Thank you to the ladies and gents among you) and I can "pony" up the other 5 silver to buy a Pony. Will you do me a huge favor and write into the narrative what I might need to do to acquire the pony to pull the cart? Maybe set up a quick 1 on 1 to try and haggle the price. My time is so limited - I'm spinning plates on my forehead.
Seems to me that pony is more important than a crowbar and shovel. (Which I thought would be super helpful on this venture, but who knows?) Help a bro out.

Don't worry about it. Retcon: You guys have a mule, or draft horse. Leiknir gave you one with the cart.

I didn't anticipate buying things to benefit the group being the road block that it turned into. So we're forgetting about it. I have a feeling this game is dead/dying anyway.

Hope not. Just grab some more willing folk, maybe.

Sorry, I'm having some issues. I'll be back soon.

Khulod, don't worry about it. We're all going through stuff right now, and it just is what it is.

I'd like to confirm I'm having fun doing this, thanks all.

Bad day here.

Can't get my work VPN to function.

Kids were supposed to start online classes today, and that's not working well...

AFK BRB

A pheasant hunt! Bring back good memories. When I was 9 my dad took me on his pheasant hunt in Nebraska. I was the bird dog. I walked the thick brush and draws, chased up the birds for the guys. Had the time of my life.

I know literally nothing about hunting, the only thing I've done is been out with my mate and his hawk and ferret for an authentic experience of the hawk not wanting to fly and just watching rabbits run across the forest floor. At least the ferret didn't bite me that time!

Wait... going out with a hawk AND a ferret, just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

The ferret goes in the rabbit hole, the rabbit comes out of the rabbit hole, the hawk kills the rabbit, the dog brings the rabbit back. And the hawk, ferret and dog don't fight. Is the idea.

Right... but just seems like a hawk would be as interested in snatching up a ferret as a rabbit. Not that I know anything in particular about hawks or ferrets... I'm sure those falconers know what they're doing :P

Hey gang, just wanted to come in to say I'm on a reduced activity level, possibly until May 1. Impending work deadline.

Will post when I can, but won't be every day.

Thanks for the heads up!
I'll continue to check in and see what's new once a day.

Guys, I'm respectfully bowing out. The current crisis is taking its toll on me, and I decided to drastically cut back on pbp since I found I cannot commit to the number of games I'm in right now. Thanks for the good times, and hopefully in the future I can start participating in some more games again.

Sorry bud, was good to have you 👋

Take care of RL stuff, and we hope to see you soon!

em, at the end of this encounter could we have much more frequent new topics please? like, per scene or per encounter instead of per chapter? I find it hard finding old stuff again.

Like, a new thread? Yea absolutely, I can do that. These things do tend to get away from me...

Hey kinudig! How's the baby?

Can there be a thread that contains only what each PC looks like and any additional Info known?

You guys would be welcome to make such posts for yourselves in the "IC Resource Thread".

That thread is locked

Don't know what to tell ya. My GUI says it was not locked.

Regardless, I've locked it and unlocked it again, maybe try again?

You are doing the IC resource thread, right, and not the OOC resource thread?

The IC one is unlocked now. I swear I checked both before, but I can't prove it now :D

Sorry y'all, in my sickbed atm...

CON saving throw reqd

Oof, sorry to hear that, Ned. Get well soon (for your sake not the games ;D)!

Hope you're feeling better soon Ned!

And congratulations to Kinu! Hope all went smoothly.

Yes, feel free to join back in. Winfred is still with the group, she's been on autopilot, but is there.

You'll probably have to do some catching up. Maybe as far back as page 10 of Chapter 1 - the Simmons of King Bard?

Welcome back!

Hey all, apologies for my absence for the last week or so. Work unfortunately has gotten in the way.
It's all settled down now and I'm back, should be dropping by 1-2 times a day.

No problem, thanks for the heads up Giblets! I was beginning to wonder/miss you :)

Hey gang, I am going on vacation for a week, beginning tomorrow. Will probably have reduced activity for that time.

Seeya on the flip side!

And Kinu, I think we're waiting on Finrod's reaction while he's on watch in-game...

Have a good one :)

Enjoy!

Hey guys, as much as i would like to join back in, I'm to slow of a reader to get caught up properly enough. I think it may be smarter for me to just bow out.

Hey Cave, that's up to you.

Really not much has happened. It's pbp, and things move at a glacial pace.

They took the job.

Traveled out to the manor.

Found a bat creature there, and fought it until it flew off.

Found a near-dead person in the ruin, too, and are trying to nurse him back to health.

They searched the place.

Found some intriguing stuff.

Decided to try to lure the bat creature back, to kill it, before returning to Lake Town.

And that's where we're at...

But if you feel too out of the loop, I understand.

A little but thats probably more information then i would have gotten reading though. I think i've made it like 5-6 pages from where i've left off :sad_panda:

Right, well, if you want to continue to play, I would encourage you to get in character immediately, and just start playing.

Winfred has stayed below with the catatonic stranger, while the others fight the bat, and the fight is going on as we type. She could decide to change her role if you want to get involved again.

If you don't want to continue to play, for whatever reason, I understand and that's fine. But I would ask that if that's your choice, that you do remove yourself from the game, via the Game Page, or just tell me definitively that you're done so I can remove you, so that I can evaluate my options, as far as playing on with whom I have or recruiting someone new.

Thanks for playing with us, as far as you did, whatever your decision.

It will be an easy transition back into the game if you're still interested in playing, Cave. But if you're heart isn't in it, no worries.

Yea yea fur sure, Ill see about this catatonic guy and go from there.

Oh man i forgot how ragged shes supposed to look XDD

No. You are level 1.

This has been discussed a couple times elsewhere. We are using the Eaves of Kirkwood optional rules for the Scholar healing abilities:

Oh!! Nice, that makes me a more effective healer it looks :D super!

Ultimately I think it's actually a bit of a nerf, but it's a better progression for play by post, IMO, which has less combat...

yea it drops the d8 to a d6 but you have more of it. so currently i'm netting 3-18 vs. 3-11 but later as you lvl progress it does nerf the healing

FTR it was 100% going to spam, but filtered at my provider, not by my client. It must keep edging in and out, hence me losing them occasionally. Wouldn't have thought of that, 🤦‍♂️

Yea there was a thing i skimmed a while back that if enough people plop the mail as spam the service provider would just think all that is spam unless specifically mentioned. and just autos back to spam.

so when you want to stop receiving the emails to unsubscribe at the bottom so the algorithm isnt completely jacked.

Whooeee, you guys got it!

I was wondering if it was gonna escape again there at the end.

Nice rolls from Finrod to finish it off. And good team work from you all to get it there.

This is the third time I've ran this portion of this campaign, and this is the first time my players have ever killed it. The other time's it escaped and became a re-occurring enemy... :P Which was also cool, but this was a fun encounter for me, and I hope you guys enjoyed it too.

But where is the GIRL!!!

Heh, who knows? ;D

I'll not use a Secret Shadow again, so no harm in telling you if you really don't know.

The Secret Shadow has the ability to assume a human form for X number of rounds, the effect Stuns enemies who fail a save for the duration, and they become very vulnerable to attack. But this one was trying to use the ability to escape.

It was just a cunning ruse.

They're kind of like a Tolkienian vampire.

oh fun :,(

to bad i didn't get a chance to hold on to it. that would have been interesting as it morphs back :/

Go Team! Thanks em :)

Also can I ring the "new chapter" bell?

Yep, you guys can go ahead and level up too.

DING DING woooooooooooo

also complete.

Yes I have my Campfire Tales. They will not be canonical, but my tales will allow me and friendly creatures listening to gain an extra d6 per HD spent in a short rest. You're going to get sagas.

i expect beautiful telled tales

Hwæt!

Hey gang,

So I need to step back my activity level on Gamersplane.

Our oldest started on-line only kindergarten last week, and between that and normal work, and a couple of emergent "joys" of home-ownership (one of them being possible asbestos tile in our basement where we are wanting to redo our floor... 😩), I just have too much going on.

I'm gonna try to keep up with the games I'm playing in (though may drop one or two of those), but I need to put my GMing completely on hold.

It's "possible" that my kid returns to in-person classes at the end of October, if our state can get it's crap together RE: COVID. But who knows if that's gonna happen. Anyway, that would be the earliest I would see myself returning to GMing.

You guys can of course do with this information what you will. If that's too indefinite and you want to move on I understand. If you've got other things going on here and want to just hang out til I return, that'd be great too. I will say that in the 4+ years I've been gaming daily on GP, this is the first time I've had to take a break like this. Which is to say, I will most definitely return. Just gonna be a minute...

This game is at least in a decent stopping point. I hope you've all had as much fun as I have so far... And I hope to still see you guys around the forums. And maybe here when I come back to GMing?

Cheers,
em

Cool, no Biggie, I Have nothing but time to wait :D

Yeah I can wait. The only stress I have of PbP is worrying I missed a prompt and I'm holding everything up - I'll be pretty safe at this point. Enjoy your kid enjoying school!

Ned, maybe you can use this time to find yourself a user avatar! :P

I went to check why I never did this. it's because the avatar I use everywhere is 64x64 which is too low-res. I have a half-hearted plan to pay someone to do me an original drawing rather than the futurama clipart i've used before.

So yeah I literally might! Maybe.

what avatar? Perhaps it'll give me an art project to work on while i sit here waiting for something to do :D

Well if you're interested, it's one of the Futurama brainslugs. I think it used to be a phpbb stock image or something.

something like this? Img

Yeah exactly that. i think it shows off my heritage as another middle aged white guy :D

I got a slightly more just the one guy one coming as soon as imgur lets it upload

IMg

or if theres a different one you want lemme know :D

Ta I will set that later 😊

Tis a good time for break... Do keep us informed... Miss playing Charanthiel.

Late to the party once again, what's new huh Em?

Looking forward to the next chapter. Feels good to have vanquished a foe like Batwoman in AiME. Not the easiest thing to do from what I have heard.

Ok friends, I'm unfamiliar with 5e, and all games Ive even been a part of flop before I've had a chance to level - is there a process to assuming new skills and talents? Or is it as simple as transcribing choices made from the tables and lists provided to your own class / profession?

It's picking from choices on tables, although for level 2 there's normally a choice of one. So for my Warden I get a new hit-die-avg+CON's worth of HP and I got two skills, Jack of All Trades and Campfire Tales.

No worries EM, I'm happy to wait.
Thanks for the game!
Hope all goes well with your kid and school.

Doublely so because I put that creature in the scene with no thought or intent that you guys would successfully kill it during the day-time encounter, much less try to lure it back and kill it at night. As mentioned, if anything, the thought was that it could become a re-occurring enemy.

So you guys 100% made it's death happen. You guys took the kind of initiative in impacting the world and story that I love to see, and reward as a DM.

So thank you all for that play-experience. I found it really exciting and fun, cuz I got to use some cool things about the monster and the terrain, etc. and you guys legitimately and significantly impacted the narrative, whether you knew it or not. Cool cool cool

Those unscripted elements of game play, and unforseen conclusions are so much fun. When we first spoke, Em, I was just getting into the pbp format, as well as getting back into rpg after many years. Now, perhaps 18 months later I've had the chance to GM some games on Discord (which is pbp but ends up being a different scene altogether) and I know the joy that comes from a story that "writes itself".

Bump

Dropping.

Incase anyone forgot or missed it, I did state that I will be inactive on this game until the end of October.

Hey everybody, so I wanted to send out the call and see who's still around.

I'm tentatively prepared to start this game back up, however my state (like most others) positivity rates are going up rather rapidly and there's whispers that we may go back to at-home learning about as soon as we've left it here.

Anyway, at this time, plz chime in if you're still around and active and ready to play.

Ding ding :D

Also free to GM if you want to play but not continue to run the game, if that helps?

I'm here :D

Glad to hear it!
I'm still around.

Thanks for chiming in all, looks like Kinudig is still snoozing... they may yet come back, so I'd like to give them some time.

And Ned, that's actually a very tempting offer... Despite my kid being back in school physically, the situation still feels pretty unstable. This adventure was kind of meant to be a jumping off point to greater adventure, based on a few things. But we're certainly not very deep into anything and could be transitioned with little trouble.

I'm gonna PM Gene, they mentioned they might come back whenever the game was ready to go again.

And I think we maybe give Kinu some time to notice the Gamersplane email, as they often end up in spawn filters.

And if no one is opposed to the idea, I'd say, Ned, start prepping you're plot. Cuz you can probably meet ppl's needs better than I can right now.

Gene needs another rebuild the character again. I just recently deleted the old copy too. Just a few days late.

You just used the pregen wood elf, right?

Yeah it was pregen and then added a level if I recall right.

Here's the link to the character creation thread where I linked an image of the base character sheet.
https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/15514/?p=703912#p703912

I have most of the character regenerated now. I still had access to Adventures in Middle Earth Player Guide. And a look at the pregen.

Edit: I even found the same picture.

Hey guys!
I'm here.
Just need to catch up.
The place I'm working has poor cell service, but I'll try to read up and get resituated.
Did we gain a level? Cant remember

Yea, you leveled.

You can look over the character. I think that I have it done. I don't recall any change in the gear. Just a level higher was the only change from the pregen. That and the alteration of the Hands of Healer.

No such thing as Alignment in AiME.

You're assumed to be a generally heroic person. And instead of alignment, doing selfish and mean things earns you "Shadow", which of you accumulate too much, can eventually cause your character to become an NPC.

All is good then.. Caranthiel is up and running.

And it's official. 2 hrs ago, our mayor announced a rollback to city-wide restrictions that will put schooling back on a hybrid or remote-only schedule.

Well, it was a good solid 5 days we had of in-person! 🤣😭😭😭

With that I think, Ned, the game is officially yours if you want it. (Thanks by the way for the offer to pick it up, otherwise I'd probably be stopping it completely at this point.)

I'm really REALLY sorry for the run-around everyone.

Not a problem Em. We know how life gets.

So if em's going to gen a player, we still have 4 PCs? I still haven't gotten any better with gamersplane, I can either learn this or we can move to discord, don't mind.

Also shout out your preferences for a type of story and I'll think of something to start in Laketown...

If I create a character we'll have 5 Players, everybody came back.

As for moving the game, I do Gamersplane because I can have all my games in one spot. I won't be moving to Discord if that's what's decided ppl want to do.

As for the continuance of the game, every body would have earned 23 silver and 8 copper, for returning Leiknir's things (which, for a meta-glimpse at the plot, they weren't REALLY his things... which you guys likely c/would have discovered, kicking off the REAL plot, but that's neither here nor there now, so we'll just proceed as if they were and it will serve as a nice one-off to get things going...).

Also I'll probably roll up some type of Warrior (or Slayer), as we don't have a front line fighter...

All right, I'll learn how to count and how to use gamersplane :D

I'll have a bit of a think and get back to y'all.

I would very much prefer the game to be played in Gamersplane as well.

i'm indifferent. I'm not big on LotR info so i'm game for whatevers. All our stuffs already set up on here so i would suggest continuing on here but idc what medium :D

No need to apologise EM! That's just life for everyone at the moment - unpredictable.

Thanks for stepping up Ned. We carrying on with the same characters? And I'm easy with whatever medium we use - never done PbP before except this so happy to either carry on here vs discord, whatever the rest of you think.

Yeah we'll stay with the current characters, and stay on here. Well, em gets a new L2 char.

OH! We level?!

Yep, em said we made level 2.

OH Man! what whas i not paying attention to. okey dokey i got something to do now :D

Sorry to be a wet blanket.
Can someone post a brief walkthrough of the 5e level up process? Im not finding time to read through the core book carefully and thoroughly, and I don't want to run into a situation where Im holding up the game.

from 1-2 is not much. maybe another class skill. but mostly just hp. if your a caster you may get some more spells.

what class you bee kin?

Treasure Hunter!
And what's the roll / option for obtaining level 2 HP?

You get a d8+CON modifier hp as a Treasure Hunter. So you get the option to either roll it or take the average (5) + CON modifier.

I forget if new threads send an email notification, but if they didn't, I've started a new thread. WELCOME BACK TO ESGAROTH, JEWEL OF THE LAKE!

Nice!
Looking forward to this, all.

Hmm.. it appears i'm already lvl 2 anyways ONward!

Trying to catch up - just got back to work after 9 months and Im so whooped I cant even begin to describe.

HAHA I know that feeling

So where are we at now.. :)

New American government, by the sound of it?

In Middle Earth, you're in Esgaroth, having killed a scary beast that was living in Leiknir Manor and you've rescued an unknown man who was surely dying without your help. The doctor wants to know more.

Kinudig shows as inactive for 15ish days :(

I don't know if you've tried PMing Kinu and/or Giblets, Ned, but I think we need to either try to get them back in action, or recruit other players?

Cuz if it's just Cave and I, is that enough to support a campaign?

No it's not, good idea, I'll PM them.

We can do it! Well jus be at a disadvantage cause of our low numbers. I have faith we can do it! :D

You can have Vidar or A.N.Other NPC as a sidekick. I'm sorry, I can't face inviting more people in - 2020 has been my year of trying out PbPs, and that initial part of getting someone in and balancing everyone's expectations of post schedules has me done now.

I'm content to keep running this, maybe a bit lighter on combat, if you're interested. I've not tried telling an urban story in AiME before.

I've made a pretty combat-focused character, cuz that was what we needed at the time. Don't know how much use/fun she'd be in something more investigative or exploration, etc. focused.

Aside from that, I've got a lot going on IRL rn. And sticking with a 3 player campaign would probably be a little hard for me to "justify" myself unfortunately.

I know it's very much my fault that this game is dying, so I apologise for that guys.

Well, I wasn't going to have too many rolls given the low numbers, but yeah, I feel it might be a little tough. I don't think it's anybody's fault this game has struggled, it's bit an insanely tough year and I've enjoyed playing with you all.

Ok, we'll stop playing

I take it neither Kinu or Giblets has replied then?

Its been good, Winfred is a space filler shes not really good at anything other then info and healing :D

I Could do whatever yall want.

I didn't mail kinu as they've not logged into the system, so they're not going to see a DM

It's so weird that this is Giblets' only game, and they haven't posted here in over a month, but they also haven't been "inactive" (which I think is just, having accessed the site) long enough to have be put to sleep.

Are we calling this then?

Yeah, I think so. Thanks all for brightening up 2020 in a small way ☺️

Goonies never say die!

Alright, yea, thanks for gaming you guys.

Hope to see you around!