Admin, OOC, and Launch Discussion

LMAO for real, man. Thorn could always work on his DEX and team with Kray to make the showman-flash part of the rumble team.

Btw, Bull has taken 73 hp damage. At this point, including J's hints of "these guys are taking more than a man can take", I think it's probably a safe assumption that our characters are like sparring partners in this fight. Well... hopefully killing Fingol is the answer (maybe he's something like a necromancer and those dudes will drop when Fingol drops), because I can't see someone lighting a fire during combat with a tinderbox (that would take minutes) and none of us have a flamethrower. Of course, now that I think about it, there is a fire where the cauldron was... maybe we could torch up and burn these bitches that way? Or rip the masks off! Wow... hell, that might actually be worth a try?

The above unknowns actually reflects some of the coolness of Dark Thrones... none of us are going "oh, those mask guys are X creatures from the Monster Manual, just cast Mordenkainen's Undeniable Punkassnessosity on them and we'll be good. Yeah man, look 'em up on page 121. M's Punkassnessosity will have those mask dudes pissing their legs and gibbering."

Ha... moving on... if they don't do the classic bleed and die (and J hasn't described any blood in this scene, even though I know Kray skewered Bull and Talius nailed him with the hammer solid as hell), there's got to be some weakness, whether it's Fingol, fire, or the masks, silver... you know, the classics. Find their weakness or snuff the source of their power.

The cool part is that we don't know.

Ez nailed it, that really is why this is the best game I've played in a long time, I have no fucking idea what we are up against and it makes combat so much more fun.

You might be onto something Ez, these guys might be vodoo ghosts or something fucked up and we are on the ground wasting our time.

Y'all, I'm a big WWF/WWE fan from way back. In fact, pretty soon, it's probably going to become a requirement that everyone has to pick out Intro Music for their characters.
I mean, think about rolling up into an encounter with this playing in the background. Advantage Intimidation checks!?!
Or maybe a team intro song like the best Team Intro Song of All Time.
When you guys get up in the higher levels, maybe you will be this famous. Holy Ish that's an unbelievable crowd pop.

X, that was an awesome find on that 619 compilation too. Rey Mysterio would definitely be a high-DEX Fighter Battlemaster/ Rogue Thief build.

But let's not forget the best unarmed strike finisher of all time either as we think these things over. No wonder they call Shawn Michaels "The Showstopper."

D7D wrestling might be broken, Ez, but at least real professional wrestling is totally badass. Gimme a "Hell YEAH!"

I'm a fan of DDP from back in the day.

Thanks for hanging in there with the mystery. One of the goals that I think (at least hoped) that we were all looking for was some creepiness and attempt to really capture the idea of a dangerous unknown.

After playing the game for so many years, I always try to think "What if I was with a regular team of real life guys, even badass highly trained soldiers, and then we rolled up on things that happen in the game, in real life?"

I mean really - think about it. Like this situation: really rowing out for multiple days deep into a swamp, stories of sicko swamp people killers out there, alligators everywhere, rolling up on a witch house, crazy silent dudes in animal masks showing up out of nowhere. I was actually thinking it over more of what Jabes was writing, about how he was playing Ivor, who inside is just freaking creeped out and sick of all of this unexplainable stuff. It's making him angry inside and he just wants to snuff it out. And as he chooses what to do, sometimes that makes him seem a little strange, quiet, unpredictable. I think it is a real possibility as a true-to-life reaction.

I always try to keep the realness projection in mind when thinking of a fight against unnatural opponents, and always pretty much think of a few things as an answer:
1) it would be freaking creepy and scary (if you don't want to say scary, say nerve-wracking or shocking or whatever), and
2) it would be extremely confusing to know what to do. You would just have to dig deep, remember training, and keep fighting with everything you've got. And that means resolve, courage, balls but also with your weapons, guns, swords, whatever you had. And
3) it would really make you cling to the people that you are fighting with, because when the whole world is coming to kill you and everything you thought you knew is out the window, I know for sure that it is good to see someone beside you fucking hacking and shooting and fighting and sucking it up with you. You'd really have to stick together, or everything would unravel. And then that becomes convincing that a group of 4 or 5 guys become a Team, or a Party.

A little hard to create the feeling for all of us sometimes. We've read the stats, seen the pictures, been a part of all the battles before, and they are like the color drawings. No one's fault. It's just hard to escape it sometimes unless you really get away from the books and the stat charts and ditch the idea of a guaranteed balance - and just picture it as a real thing you were doing outside in a real swamp, real guys attacking you. Nothing to do but just keep swinging, shooting, and look for some way to get them to stay down.

I have to say this set up for fingol, the whole approach and this combat has been absolutely vivid in my mind. I'm thinking about it at work checking the forums to see if there's an update (even though I have post notification) and to see where the fight is going next.

This is me.

Have you done the "read all the posts then click on the forums link (at the top) and scroll down to Dark Thrones to see if it is highlighted in color now or just gray"?

My mom always told me to never get cocky because no matter how good I was at something, there was always someone better. And you guys are definitely winning the nerd race.

I used to hear the same line about being cocky. And, in appreciation of humility and the modern 'everyone who participates gets an award' spirit, you too are a winner nerd CB.

Shit just got real.

Y'all, I ran a live game this weekend with my son and his friends (19 year-olds, but they are pretty solid D7D gamers and pretty funny on the chatter too) plus my youngest daughter (she's a good bit younger).

It was a sesh that I had written notes on several weeks ago, but my son has not been home for the past few weekends, so I was a little cold on reading back through the game plan and getting it back underway. Stumbled a little, but got in a good flow after a few minutes.

BUT it just stayed weird for me for the whole time. It's a long running campaign with a Warlock, a half-orc female, plus there were a couple of dwarves. Warlock was summoning a Night Gaunt. The party was fighting a big crazy monster. Eldritch Blasts everywhere. People were flying. One big duel ended up being 2 Warlocks in a toe-to-toe battle, close range, both using Vampiric Touch to drain each other and heal themselves. Pretty cool actually and the crowd loved it, but it was crazy.

There was some melee and fighting for sure, but no one had Advantage or Disadvantage too much. Not that many opposing STR checks. Pretty routine on the attacks and a the back and forth.

I had a real blast, and everyone else too, but I definitely was suffering from Dark Thrones culture shock through the 2 hour sesh. This (Dark Thrones) is a different game from everything else, y'all. It's rough. It's technical. It's complicated, but it's controlled. An all-pro player's club in you guys that brings the game to a really high level. Thanks for the gaming. It's really a different feel. I like the other stuff sometimes too, and love hanging out gaming with the kids and a live crowd, but this game online here is aqua-fresh.

I have a couples game coming up. I convinced my wife to play with a friend of mine and his wife. We are running through Storm Kings Thunder and it's been pretty fun so far, but life got in the way and we haven't played in months. We just scheduled our next session and I'm trying to rehash what I wrote before Christmas, so I know the feeling. We are about to do a massive giant fight that the group doesn't know about and I hope I don't kill them all hahaha.

I haven't played or DM'd any of the module books, but Storm Kings looks really cool (I'm guilty of thumbing through those hardbacks in the book store with no intention to buy).

Seems like when giants are stomping around everywhere, it's a pretty high percentile chance for PC death(s) (does everyone really start at level 1 versus giants?!). Just be sure to kill the neighbor's characters and not your wife's. She might cut you off if you embarrass her like that in front of the crowd.

It eases the PCs into world of Giants, I'm rolling 3d10+7 ranged rock throws and level 1s would would be turned to paste. The module gets the PCs to level 5 pretty fast and then brings on the giants. The rest of book has them traipsing through the sword coast.

I'm really jealous Qiu got a trophy before me, I wanted a bull horn from my buddy that just won't die.

I love Bill the Butcher! Check this out: "This is a wound. This is a kill."

Such a good scene I need to watch that movie again.

I brought my wife to see that movie on Valentine's Day when we were dating, bahahaha. She must've really liked me because she still married me.

Yeah... best character in that movie by far. A deep character too; not necessarily the 'bad guy', but just a guy with different beliefs who thinks he doing what's best, a result of the culture of the time and his life experiences. Of course, his egocentric beliefs left a little to be desired, to be sure.