OOC

Swarley has no intention of letting them just walk away, but I'm going to wait a little while in case others want to jump in to this scene.

Sure thing. I assumed something like that was going to be the case.

Question, since we'll likely be entering combat soon, does anyone have any preference how initiative is handled? Combat is always a lag on the games in PbP, so I've been toying with ways to speed it up and I have a few options, but am open to others.

1). Run initiative like we would normally, and just take it one turn at a time.
2). Everyone rolls initiative, posts all at once, and then I put up one big post summarizing everything.
3). Go the ADD way, and have initiative rolled for sides. Group goes, then the NPCs/foes go, then the next turn.

I'm up for other ideas if anyone has one.

I've seen GMs roll Init for everyone, posted openly, and then you're either before or after the foes. As a GM, I don't worry about order among the players.

In my PbP experience, I've tried all three variations, and I think #1 probably keeps the most consistent pace, especially if the GM rolls for absent players. #3 might go a bit faster, but there's greater risk of leaving players behind (and/or the GM rolling for them more often). I don't see there being much of a difference between #2 and #3....

#1 tends to pace the game the best, but can be sloooow.

I saw the difference between two and three being where and how the enemies get an attack. If use the old ADD way, there's a chance the mooks (weak foes in 13th Age) get taken out before really having a chance to attack. If I have everyone just roll initiative and their attack all at once, then the mooks may be more of a threat because they get woven into combat in a random order. It's true I may end up having to roll more for players though.

I have everyone roll initiative, but lump people into initiative groups, so it doesn't matter who goes first within that group. Anyone who doesn't roll initiative gets put last in the order. Anyone who takes a ridiculously long time to post and is holding up the game gets skipped and can jump into the order when they get back.

In my FFG games, it's a very different initiative system.

I'm open to whatever is decided. I agree with what you all are saying; #1 is the best choice, granted everyone is paying attention. #2 and #3 would be fine as well to keep things moving swiftly.

To keep the game in the hands of the players as much as possible we'll go with #1 for now. If it looks like it's not working we'll trying something else.

It appears two of us beat the initiative of the foes. Should we leap into action, or did you have some setup planned first?

Go ahead and go. I was holding out to see if our missing player was going to cast a (virtual) die, but I haven't heard anything.

Bundle of Holding

So as expected, we lost a player. And thanks for the link to the 13th Age material. It looks like the same bundle I picked up a couple years ago. I have no regrets. I highly recommend this deal for anyone interested in the game. It's not everything that has been published for the game, but it's a majority of the content, and the most essential stuff.

Sorry for my absence here the past week or so - I started supervising an intern at work and it's taken more time out of my days than I had anticipated. Also, I'm headed out on vacation for a week and won't be back until after Memorial Day (May 29).

If the initiative tracker gets back to Bog in the meantime, my intent is for him to find the Captain (or whomever he reports to) and raise the alert to what's going on in the battlefield.

ok, thanks for the info. If that happens I'll take over Bog with those intentions in mind.

MoldyNolds left the game. Do you all want to continue this or should I just go ahead and let this one go?

Hmm. Tough start. Seems like we didn't really get into any kind of groove.

I still want to play, but would be understand if you want to restart or shelve this one.

I don't t know that there's enough interest to keep this one going. I think I'm going to shelve it, and maybe try again at a later date. Thank you for signing up.

Sometimes games just don't take off the way you hope. Thanks for the attempt though - it's nice seeing some more 13A games being played here!