Welcome (OOC Chat Area)

PHB recommends that initial equipment sells for half its book value so that's the fallback position if GM hasn't said differently.

Do you want second level health rolled or can we just take average?

I think Dipper said roll 1/2 and add half, which would be clearly > average. Do if you're using a d8 for HP, then second level is d4 + 4.

For character creation ONLY, you can sell any equipment you get at 100% PHB value.

During the game, it will be extremely rare for anything bought or sold to actually conform to those prices.

Thought I'd share this!

Second level HP roll

Thanks

You using that item for this game?

So was it ever decided if we’re required to use a specific character sheet? Or can we just use a custom one?

"It's not really worth using to be honest, and I think I'd be doing my game a disservice by focusing too much on it instead of focusing on the more important aspects of storytelling."

You can just use either the custom one or the standard 5e one on the site.

When I was running this on my old site, the characters were level 3 instead of level 2, so instead of offering them 120gp, I offered 300gp or an uncommon magic item. Since Aisede and Drinks are migrating those characters, I had them de-leveled, but I said they could keep their items as a thank you for following me to a new site.

It's a minor imbalance between the two parties, but should be corrected long before there's any chance of you running into each other.

With Basil's application, we now have a full boat, and I was able to comfortably add badbaron to Ravenclaw group with the assurance that even if Drinks doesn't accept the invitation, Basil's presence keeps the groups from being too imbalanced.

Our Final Roster:
Aisede, WhiteDwarf, DrifterDwarf, Grifter730, Drinks and Basil are going on the pilgrimage to the crypts (Hufflepuff Group).
Arrcher101, runekyndig, Shorty, Avraham, Greyword and Badbaron are going to visit Baron Treymane (Ravenclaw Group).

The game is still on track to start tomorrow. I'm going to mark the character sheets approved so that you can use them to make any skill checks necessary. This is not actual approval. While we're roleplaying for the first two weeks, I'm going to finish my work of delving into all your backgrounds and reviewing your sheets, and I will indicate formal approval in private message to you in the group OOC threads as I complete them (or, of course, if anything needs changing, I'll communicate it that way as well). For your parts, I'd just appreciate it if y'all try to stay out of fights for the next two weeks. ;) Shouldn't be TOO much of a problem.

Get used to using your Group OOC threads from this point forward by default. If you have something to say that you want all players to see, you're welcome to choose this thread to do it, but do not reveal any In Character events in this thread.

Just to make the concept really, really clear:

Acceptable message: "Hope you guys are having as good a time as we are, it's been exciting!"
Unacceptable message: "Hope you guys are having as good a time as we are, we just defeated a group of kobolds on top of a ridge."

Excited to get started!

Hufflepuff is starting a mega bar fight in the second post!!!

@Dipper, to ask something privately, do you prefer direct messages or private notes in this thread or the group thread?

Dibs on the popcorn concession!

Definitely NOT direct messages; I like to keep everything game-related contained to the game area for better reference.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure how to handle it without having private threads to fall back on. I thought about making a distinct thread for people to ask questions, but the problem there is that sometimes you don't even want your fellow players to know you're asking something, and they're going to see the empty post. I could just require everyone to post innocuously, like, "everyone must check in on the question thread when you've read the latest post" so that those who want to ask questions privately can make it part of their check-in and no one will know that they asked anything because everyone is posting in the check-in thread three times a week, but I don't know if that's an undue burden to put on you guys when you could accomplish the same thing by leaving a general "this is cool" comment in the OOC thread and sneaking your question in that way. But of course, that means the answer gets buried in OOC thread spam and becomes harder to refer to down the road.

It's all a mess.

I'm open to suggestion on what y'all would like to do. How does the site normally accomplish it in other games? Should I just bite the bullet and make 12 private subforums?

I don't think I've ever really learned anything interesting from someone posting a blank (secret) message. I wouldn't have any problem with that. I wouldn't require check-ins as it make the game clunkier and less fun. All posts should be fun!

I never needed secrecy in my games to this extent. If there is a dark secret, like, my shadow is alive. Then if there is only vague hints to it, nobody picks up on it, and that side of a character will never see any play time.
In my playgroups, the player and the GM discuss it between them selves but openly, allowing those who are interested, to interact with the character plot and bring it into play.

OK, but then I would specifically request of you to be very careful when responding. For example, earlier on, I sent you a private note in this thread and asked if you could respond to me privately, and I guess you didn't see that since you responded openly in thread. That was not a big deal for that question, but it may be a big deal when it comes to game management.

I'm happy to post using private notes in the OOC thread (or Ravenclaw OOC as the case may be). The fact that someone else is posting something private gives little-to-no metagame information, in my opinion. They could simply be telling you you made a spelling mistake or that they need to take a week off. :)

Making that kind of mistake is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night with terrors, so I just scoured the thread looking for it and I couldn't find it. Can you just privately notate the date/time of the post where I did it? I'm still becoming accustomed to the differences between this site and my old one, if I missed some nuance then I definitely want to make sure I've got these things down.

I'll see if there's any other feedback, but based on you three, it sounds like a singular "private messages go here" thread should be fine, without succumbing to the paranoia of "what's going on there" speculation. Although I will probably send a few nonsense messages to no one every now and then because that's just how I roll. ;) Literally, actually, I've been known to roll my dice behind the DM Screen IRL for no reason, just to make sure the players don't read anything into it when I DO have a reason. I guess it's kinda nice to have a PbP equivalent to that practice.

Glad to be of service. You udnderstand, that part of the DM/Player compact is that providing terror is a two-way street BWAHAHAHAAHA