Q&A / Notices

DM Question / answer and notices

Some questions about the setting - mostly about the specifics of what happened to people during the Shattering.

1. How long ago was the Shattering?
2. When the Mortal People were split into the Races, what actually happened? Did an individual mortal person split into multiple people of each race? Did some mortals become elves, some dwarves, etc? Or was it a vague thing where all the previous mortal people ceased to exist and new people of different races came into existence, but there was no connection between specific mortals and specific races?
3. Depending on the answers to the above questions, are there people alive that were alive immediately after the Shattering, and if so, do they have memories of being alive before the Shattering?

Since I get the impression that the Shattering is supposed to be something that isn't "long ago", I'm just wondering what different people know and remember.

Shattering was 50 years ago and ended the war.
The People were known to be somewhat diverse but could all interbreed. The actual change is not understood as it happened with the Shattering. It is known that entire groups had certain traits accentuated and interbreeding is much harder, except for with humans who some argue are the base or peak form. The current races originated from groups of the People with a common land, God, patron, etc. Due to the history of the People already possessing diverse features most new races have little or no racism. I will expand on this in the world section later.
Survivors of the Shattering abound in the longer lived races. However due to the War and or Shattering most or all truly powerful individuals are no longer present in the world. Immediately after the Shattering they were no characters over 12th level. This is a currently unexplained fact.

Update on languages
Reading and writing in any language, other than common, takes a language slot. The written form of Common is a simplified Ideagram that all can "read". Wizards must be able to read at least 1 language that their spell book is written in. Any language slots used on read/write without the accompanying spoken language slot allows the character to know the language but not be able to use it conversationally.
The written language of the People is currently known as Arcane or Divine which share a common root but evolved during the war and since the Shattering. Think king James bible English vs modern scientific English

Might be someplace else but with so much it is hard to tell.

Do we get max HP with our first Class? When I get a second class, is the first level of it max HP?

What are Language Slots? I know my tabaxi has at least one extra language besides Common. No such language as tabaxian.

Max HP only at character level 1
Language slots are just language proficiencies gained from your race, background, or class

Been double-checking the house rules, and came up with an Encumbrance question. The variant encumbrance system does away with the STR requirement for armor. In its place, the weight of armor becomes part of a total weight calculation for encumbrance purposes. One of Mithril Armor's benefits is that it has no STR requirement. Under the variant encumbrance system, would you allow Mithril Armor to weigh less than standard armor of the same type, so that it is still providing a similar benefit? If so, how much less would the Mithril Armor weigh? (Really I'm specifically concerned with Marwin's Mithril Plate.)

Mithral is half weight

That is between you players, ask in the chat if you like

Will we be tracking rations in this game?

Yes. Fortunately the base camp is within a day of most everything. But unexpected side trips do prolong missions.
Rations for 5 days will be provided anytime you leave on a mission for the expedition

Looks like I missed answering this
If you use custom HP then roll HP for 1st level

There is a quick survey on which battle map you prefer to use.
Table plop
This is an external site but it is dynamic and simple to use once you are logged in, just click, drag, drop. Mobile friendlyOtFBM
These are convenient as they can be place inline but do require players to manually edit text to move their tokens.Please vote on the original survey in here

Player poll

I may respond earlier to individual posts but will wait for a consensus before moving the story. However I have noticed some players do not feel the need to post for every action. This just lets me know your preference. Not voting is assumed to be a "don't care" vote

My preference is that a second GM post shouldn't happen on the same day as a previous GM post unless everyone has responded to the first one. But if a day has passed since the last GM post, the GM doesn't need to keep waiting for everyone to post. If at least two players have posted, that seems fine.

Game Post rate is set at 3/week, or every other day. So I do not plan on moving things along faster than that unless everyone is posting to keep up. (Go ahead and drop a click vote on at least 2 then) If I do more than that it should only be to add detail as I often work on this on the train and depending on what else is going on I dont always have time to do a full post on 1 train ride

Hmm. I thought I vote already. I like the fastest as possible on posting rate and if everyone does hit 3/week then really things move along just fine with everyone posting. It is when players don't hit that 3/week posting that problem happen and you have to decide when to just pass them by. Which is never great and a shame that those that do post have it lesser. I leave such always in GM's hands and not a rock hard rule.

It is a shame for player to apply when they really don't have the intention to make the posted rate. It is always lesser to those that do. I spend a lot of useless checking awaiting others to post.

Posting rate is an issue I have had and do not like having to deal with. If things start dragging out I loose track of the story and spend too much time rereading stuff. I used to ask for daily in another game I ran but found that was hard on most people so 3/week is my compromise. I understand life happens and don't mind if people can not always keep up.
I just brought it up to make sure we are all on the same page. As it stands I will advance the story anytime I have at least 2 but probaly stick to the every other day for a while (assuming Gene's vote for fastest possible goes to 1 or 2 - The polls are a new thing, for me at least, so it is a bit of an experiment) Once we play more we will all get a better feel for how the group dynamics work.

You should have access to Shattered Handouts as a popup option at the bottom next to your character let me know if you do not

To add the handout for this game to your library, if you want, for your use go to the Character Library (where shared characters are to be found) then search for "Shattered Handouts", click on the name then when it opens up click on the bookmark (top Right) This is where I will be adding stuff your characters will have access to.