Admin, OOC, and Launch Discussion

Qiu is ok at all of those, and excels at history.

Investigation +2
Insight +2
History +6
Intelligence +2
Persuasion +1

He will take keen interest in anything related to History and will be Helping with investigation and insight as he wants to get to the bottom of the situation and understand what is driving both Zaituc and the druid. He will listen to what others ask and ask followup questions to flesh out the answers.

Since all of us are having a talk through about the details on the contract, would it be safe to assume that we can all roll with Advantage for whatever check we decide to do (assuming we'll get Help from someone on the check-- there's no mechanical requirement to my knowledge)? Maybe it could reflect just the natural flow of group conversation (e.g., Kray's Persuasion attempt on the behalf of the group carrying more weight, springboarding off of another character's comment, rather than being simply for some personal gain).

CB, I'm fine if you go ahead and roll that History check. Even if it's not the high for the group, I think it's pretty damn serviceable for 4th level.

On rolls to boost info at contract meeting...

Good idea on the Aid Another effort from the whole crowd. I'm supportive of that, so all elected rollers proceed with Advantage rolls, and good that the trend is already established. Picturing it as more of a give and take with the whole crowd involved. Early example of team work too I think.

Write up coming. Please forgive the recent delays. Unexpected developments at work have thrown me for a loop before, during, and after workdays so far this week.

Hell, I appreciate the delay this morning! Without it, I feel like I would have missed the bus on being involved in the ability checks.

I have been slammed at work too, so a slower pace this week is fine by me.

Just now coming up for air after a brutal couple of days at work. Haven't slept for 36 hours! Will try to catch up...

Talius can make the insight rolls.

Nice.

Wrote up a few results on History and Investigation on Ep 1. Have to call it quits for the night though. Will try to get the other stuff up on the board sometime by mid-morning.

Party is having pretty good success so far. A good run on the dice it looks like to me. Gives a little boost on info.

Yo, Xorthan. Wondering if that last remaining INT check might have Thorn's name all over it...just wondering. :)

As far as inventory and the swamp, this is what I've got (besides weapons) and not necessarily what I'm bringing. What I'm curious about here is how closely you're looking at our inventory J. For example, Kray doesn't wear armor anyway, so is bringing the below gear an issue in any way? In other words, how realistic are we getting? Or is your focus more on heavy gear and heavier armor, rather than specifics (like swamp-wet rations being no good to eat anymore, maps being ruined if I they get submerged, etc).


---Medium Shield (+2 AC)

MISCELLANEOUS
--Backpack
--Sack for loot

--Crowbar
--Hammer

--50 ft hemp rope
--Pitons x10

--Torches x10
--Tinderbox

--Bedroll
--Blanket
--Waterskin
--Rations x10

CARTOGRAPHY TOOLS (primary use)
--Leather folder for maps
--Pen
--Bottle of Ink
--parchment sheets x10
--Sealing Wax
--Candle x4
--Chalk x4

Just as a continuation of what Ez is asking, mechanically speaking, how will you handle swimming in Armor? I've had some DMs say you just can't swim in armor and you are hindered in doing certain things.

I'm just going to leave this here.

Jokes aside, I'm fine with leaving Armor behind. In two levels I won't need it anymore.

Talius' gear.

Medium Oval Shield +2 AC
Mail Curiass

Pack items

Backpack
Bedroll
Mess kit
Tinderbox
10 torches,
10 days of rations
Waterskin.
50 feel of hempen rope strapped to the side
Caltrops
Whetstone
Healers Kit 10/10: Bandages, Salves and Splints
Dried meat
Travelers clothes (currently being worn.)
Herbalism Kit: Clippers, Mortar and Pestle, Vials

Home Items

Smiths Tools
Miners Pick
Shovel
50 lbs of Iron Ore
Healers Kit 10/10
Herbs
Antitoxin

As posted in the Absences thread:

General thoughts on the current conversation above...

On weight, carry, and equipment

Up front: I am not going to spend much of any time at all on monitoring your supplies. What I would like to ask though is that each player take control of their own character's realism on this topic and incorporate it into the story telling appropriately in a way that makes sense. Most of us were willing to take on this project with the hopes that we could maybe build a little bit more of a realistic feel to the scenes we develop. I think this topic on weight/carry/equipment is a great opportunity to get to it on that note.

We've all seen the player (I've definitely BEEN the player) at the table who, after supposedly swimming across a ravine, tight-walking a rope bridge, climbing a 100 foot cliff (8 story building), outrunning a flock of panthers, wrestling 2 ogres, and slashing two-weapon style through 50 orcs on crack , comes up to a portcullis.

So he takes his fully loaded BACKPACK off of his PLATEMAIL ARMORED shoulders, shifts his DOUBLE LONGSWORDS off of his back holsters, and lays down his BATTLE AXE spare weapon and 2 HAND AXES, pulls his LONG BOW off from over his chest, drops his QUIVER OF 30 ARROWS, so that he can look through his supplies, move the TENT and SLEEPING ROLL to the side, so that he can get to his 10 FOOT POLL and 15 IRON SPIKES and SMALL HAMMER kit, 50' ROPE staged up to the side with GRAPPLING HOOK. He is thinking also about using the CROWBAR that he carries, but right now he is going to kick back, use one of the 10 TORCHES, start a fire with his PERFECTLY DRY TINDERBOX. While chewing on 1 of 10 IRON RATION PACKS, he can't remember how much money he has after he bribed the guard back at the last station. So he gets out his MEDIUM BELT POUCH and counts his money to be sure. Yep. It's all there: 100PP, 300GP, 500SP. Where are those gems again? Oh yeah, all 20 of them are still in SMALL BELT POUCH, safe and sound. Time to saddle up and bypass this portcullis and swim across that inner moat on the other side!

Classic! We all know that some of the ridiculousness of D7D inventory lists has been off the charts sometimes. That's no problem though; it's fun as hell to whip out that 50' hemp and iron piton climb the fuck out of some punk-ass wall like an REI commercial. But to change things a little let's aim to just think it through on our scenes and stay at least moderately committed to feeling the ideas of carrying all that shit around and what it would feel like in difficult terrain or in periods of physical exertion.

Also, let's consider the ideas of swimming with setting-style armor and full tactical gear. The plain truth of it: it's a huge risk and also a smoker of an exertion even if you athletic your way out of a jam. If you go over the side of a canoe with full kit, you are probably going to need to ditch whatever you can to avoid sinking like a rock. I'm not sure if you can ditch fully strapped in metal armor or not. That seems like a life or death ability check or two versus some pretty threatening DCs.

Comparatively, I think back to all of the Conan stories ("Of course. It always goes back to Conan, doesn't it, J?" haha).
Conan's equipment list:
1) Sandals
2) Loin cloth
3) Sword
4) Belt and scabbard
(Item 4 optional)
All the rest of the stuff needed to get the episode done was improvisation and "battlefield procurement."

All that being said, I don't want to quash preparedness or set it up where the DM has a war vs. material. Not like that at all. Like I said, in full disclosure: I am not going to look at equipment at all before the mission. Depending on what circumstance develops in the scenes, I may ask about it during the events just to get a feel for any effects as necessary. And if there are any effects, I will aim to make them as realistic as possible.

Plus, these guys are premiere athletes and strong dudes. It is not lost on me that they can haul a load, and keep on trucking. Also, I think a lot of it is solved if we say they have backpacks they carry in, but when they know the real action is going to start, they might download rucksacks, camoflage them up in a cache somewhere, and then roll onto the action scene with just the actual battle load.

Overall, I'm just trying to talk it through in advance to invite everyone to be their own monitor on realism.

Weekend Downshift

Fellas,

Thanks for all the input this week. I know it was a different week on the boards with the severe info dump download. If that is not your thing, thanks for bearing with it. Hopefully it will be time well invested to set up for upcoming scenarios.

Thanks again to Ez for managing the Timeline/Journal, which I relocated to a more prominent and sensible location here. I really like that resource and appreciate the attention to detail.

So that's it for the regular schedule now. Shifting to lower gears on attention for now, but of course the boards are open all weekend if everyone wants to continue any discussions.

I'll be ready Monday to get back to regular pace. It's going to be a Live Range - - Safeties OFF!
Let's see what happens.

Good weekend,
J

All for the realism on the gear. Reminds me of that scene in Platoon where Sgt Elias (Willem Dafoe) is telling the FNG's (fucking new guys) "you don't need that, shitcan this" etc. Going to streamline my gear for the trip, assuming it can be left with Zaituc. Also, considering weight ... what about money? How large do you consider a bag of 100 coins J? I considered the other night that taking the front half of our cut into the swamp might be foolishness. Kray prefers plates (pp) and gems as currency for their light weight vs value ... hopefully Zaituc can pay in such a fashion.

Still waiting for J's input on money (no hurry J, it'll just be part of my decision), which has the potential to be useful during the job (the whole money talks thing). Besides coin, I'm fairly set on what I'm bringing.

I'd like to think that guys who operate with fat paychecks, or pay them out, would likely appreciate using more valuable currency and would be inclined to use plates/old royals/gems whenever possible, rather than carry around fat sacks of coin all the time. Kind of like the Dark Thrones version of carrying plastic or plenty of $100's and a few smaller bills.

Gear:

Given the nature of the swamp environment and the great potential to get wet, this seems a lot more realistic for Kray's loadout:

--No armor
--All weapons (Yatagan, Falcata, knife, dagger, bow, arrows)

--Backpack (containing all of the below that Kray is bringing)
--Sack for loot
--Crowbar
--50 ft hemp rope

--Torches x10 x5
--Tinderbox
--Candle x4
--Chalk x4

--Blanket
--Waterskin
--Rations x10 x5 (4 day trip = contract bonus)

---Medium Shield (+2 AC)

--Bedroll
--Hammer
--Pitons x10


--Leather folder for maps
--Pen
--Bottle of Ink
--parchment sheets x10
--Sealing Wax

Quick answer on coin weight

1 coin = a little more than 1 ounce

So let's say 15 coins is 1 lb.

Then, 100 coins is 6 - 7 lbs , roughly.

Let's say Zaituc has enough Plates/Old Royals to pay everyone that way if they want.

Or in Cown Markes.

Being paid in Gems? Maybe not. Not enough clarity on each value.