The online campain thread

[Cantousent]

I have the inn set up for you guys because there's no "town" for the time being. It will be easy to bring people in and out of the campaign, although a six person party starts to get a little unweildly. In an in person campaing, I prefer five players. Still, Role-Player will always be welcome to join our games and I will find one way or another to work with him. It will involve some side chat with him as I get him worked up to join, but it can be done.

 

Now, as for our next session. I think we should devote a good amount of the first session to some discussion between the members. After all, while you didn't know each other before the game, you've certainly gone through a couple of battles together. In fact, the last battle was pretty rugged, so you should consider how your characters view one another.

 

Another thing to remember is that you're scouting. I agree with... Baley? Arcalis? Anyhow, I agree with the fellow who said that going back to the inn after killing one vine would be lame. However, you aren't supposed to stay gone forever. You can get some succor back at the inn, even if it's not a town. Keep in mind that your horse (Horace, Good Lord) took four points of damage before the cat switched her attention to Dhothlar.

 

With that said, you people are free to do what you want. Some areas are tougher than others, even though I work with you on the fly in order to give you a fighting chance. An example of this was your encounter in the foothills.

 

So, you can go or do whatever you want, which includes turning your back on the inn and never returning and pitching a camp and trying to establish a new city in the middle of your new "paradise." That's the beauty of a PnP game. You can do whatever the hell you want. Of course, if you try to pitch a permanent camp, then there are consequences and if you fail to report back to the inn, there are consequences. Basically, you can do what you want, but this isn't a CRPG where you leave the inn and forget it exists for several weeks and go back and everything has remained in stasis.

 

Enough of my long, rambling rant. I look forward to playing on friday. General questions should be posted here so everyone can see the answer. Just send a PM for side questions.

[Atreides]

Could I be the "random" loot/catastrophy event generator?

[Nick_i_am]

You can be Airin

[Cantousent]

Could I be the "random" loot/catastrophy event generator?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The idea of participating in a role-playing game is to break away from your real life persona.

 

At any rate, you can come in and watch the game. I think I'm going to put a password on the room again, since I found it a bit confusing when folks entered and left. If I password the room, then I'll know that the folks entering are from here. For some reason, that makes me more tolerant.

[Llyranor]

Awww, but people want to know about our vampire goth tendencies.

[Nick_i_am]

Also, i'm having some problems finding a clear deffinition for the rules reguarding animal companions, summons, and mounts in combat.

[Cantousent]

Okay, the "official" response is: I'll look over the rules and get back to you.

 

The unofficial response is: we'll handle whatever pops up as we encounter it.

 

I'll respond before Friday with more information.

[Nick_i_am]

No rush, i'd just like to be clear on how I can use Airin and summons in battle.

[Cantousent]

Okay, I'm a little tired right now, so I'll post this and clarify any confusing points later.

 

First of all, I've always been pretty fast and loose with animal companion rules. I hate pausing the game so we can get a handle on what I consider mundane tasks such as riding a horse when both the mount and rider have at least some familiarity with the process.

 

Handling an animal during combat, however, is a different story, and then we're likely to come into more problems. However, since I tend to make a lot of the rolls on my end, and since you're going to try to do whatever you're going to do at any rate, you might not even know you needed a skill. A good example was Dhothlar dismounting during combat and Nick's attacks while mounted.

 

Now, you can look on page 36 of the Player's Handbook for the general description of an animal companion. You can look on page 74 to get a feel for handling an animal. You can look on page 80 for understanding your ride skill. Finally, you might want to look on page 157 for the mounted combat rules.

 

However, understand that my main goal is to keep the action moving. I generally use the rules, but I'm going to make command decisions if push comes to shove in order to make sure the game progresses.

 

Finally, the most important thing to remember is that I won't punish you for asking. Of course, if you ask whether or not I'll let your camel tie a rope to a rock and then climb down a cliff in order to pick a lock, I'm going to look upon you with some displeasure. ...But if you have a plan for Airin that involves a reasonable activity on his part, go ahead and ask. Also, if you want to follow the rules and have 3 specific tricks you've taught the fell beast, just post them here or PM me and I'll get them on Airin's character sheet.

 

EDIT: For summons, read pages 285-286 under Summon Monster. For the most part, especially for low level creatures, your summons will simply attack your enemies as best they can. I will decide the best attacks and generall run the summons as a single minded NPC. However, more intelligent creatures will communicate with the summoner as best they can. In all cases, the summons will act as NPCs. Once again, try to be clever and I'll entertain your ideas.

Edited May 3, 2006 by Eldar

[Llyranor]

Bop. http://www.dmreference.com/SRD/Combat/Move...nted_Combat.htm

[Tigranes]

Ack. I'm not entirely sure yet, but it looks like I am required at a RL event that would need me vacate the computer around... 5-6pm EST Friday. That, of course, is not conducive to our plans. I will know for certain by Thursday Night EST, I'll see what I can do. Pushing it later doesnt help either, if I do need to go, I would be out for the next 8 or so hours after that.

[Nick_i_am]

Hmm, so Airin counts as a Bactrain camel, 40 feet movement and con of 16 with an 'offhand' bite attack and can learn 6 tricks and one bonus trick.

 

I assume that, according to the rules, I can't start her with the 'combat riding' package, so i'll stick riding on her (three tricks, come, heel, and stay) and upgrade her for combat riding whenever I am able (to add attack, defend, down, guard).

 

My only other question is that, as an animal companion rather than a 'normal' animal, will Airin need checks (according to the rules) to keep her under control in combat like a normal horse, or in this way, is she considered to have the 'intelligence' of a warhorse?

[Cantousent]

The other thing to remember is that you didn't put any ranks in handle animal. Be creative with your camel. Remember that you can make attempts without ranks and that the animal need not know the trick to use it.

 

For instance, teaching your camel to stay or to heel gives you a good bump, but it's not essential during a normal game. However, if you try to get the camel to go into that underground passage, he might balk.

 

Your animal is not a normal beast, and I take into account that he is closely linked to you. I'm going to take different actions depending on the situation. We'll get a handle on this as we progress through the game. Just whisper questions to me and I'll handle them on a case by case basis. You could even ask questions in the open channel, particularly if these questions involve other players.

 

Finally, I don't have the rules memorized. I doubt I ever do. So ask questions and don't worry I'm going to act silly or be offended at hearing different views. Normally, the worst thing that will happen is I'll say, "This is how we're going to do it in order to finish this encounter but we'll figure out the fine points later."

 

So, what I'm trying to get across is that I'm going to treat Airin as a companion. He's like a warhorse in that I'm not going to roll a check every time you shoot a bow from camelback. However, I'm going to use my discretion.

 

Like I said, you have no ranks in handle animal. You might want to put a rank or two in there, although I won't go out of my way to punish you. The fact is, putting ranks in handle animal rewards itself.

 

Comments from the other players or even folks who read this thread are welcome.

[Nick_i_am]

Yes, it might seem unusual that a druid, esspesally one with a 'mount' companion doesn't have any ranks in handle animal, esspesally as he spends most of his time on animal-back, but there is somthing of an RP reason for it.

[Fenghuang]

(The camel's actually his sister.)

[Nick_i_am]

Actually, the camel is named after my ex.

 

Not bitter and twisted

[Llyranor]

So, yeah, Airin is a he.

[Tigranes]

....don't let baley near it then. O.o

[Cantousent]

Are we playing tomorrow? If so, what time?

[Nick_i_am]

i'm good for tomorrow

[Blank]

Tomorrow is good... and @ what time?

Edited May 4, 2006 by Blank

[Cantousent]

Can we get some sort of consensus for tomorrow? I'd like to keep it sometime between 7am to 5pm PDT. I can't give all that time, but I can give a good chunk of it.

[Llyranor]

Anytime is fine for me, dawgs.

[Tigranes]

Anytime on Friday, as long as we finish before 6pm EST... if any later, I think I'd probably have to leave early / miss out. And without my calming aura Baley just might end up dead and everyone else permanently scarred.

[Cantousent]

Okay, what is the best time for you? What time would you like to start? Throw out a specific time.